IBM is taking instant messaging to Linux—on both the desktop and server.
The company will use the LinuxWorld Conference & Expo, taking place Aug. 14-17 in San Francisco, to announce that its Lotus Sametime IM platform will support Linux.
“This move will mark the first time that the millions of Linux users worldwide will have the ability to run this real-time collaboration platform on both the desktop and server in a 100 percent Linux environment,” said Scott Handy, IBM’s vice president of worldwide Linux strategy, in Armonk, N.Y.
A Java-based desktop version of the product was previously available, but that has been completely rewritten using the Eclipse RCP (Rich Client Platform) technology, Handy said.
The client version of Lotus Sametime for Linux is expected by September, with the server product due in the first quarter of 2007. A version for Apple Computer’s Macintosh also will be available early next year, Handy said, adding that all versions will come off a single code base, which also will be the only code base used going forward.
“We have now proven to ourselves that this single programming model that spans Windows, Linux and the Mac is now ready. This follows our single programming model for the server, where we standardized on Java,” he said.
That single code base benefits enterprise customers because their applications can be supported across multiple environments, which, in turn, helps them integrate Linux into their environments in a cost-effective way, said Handy. “So there is a lot of goodness in what is happening here,” he said.
Some Linux and open-source users, such as Larry Tieman, senior vice president for IT business solutions at FedEx, in Memphis, Tenn., want Linux-based open-source solutions because they offer “greater choice and more overall value to remain agile and competitive,” Tieman said.
The Sametime for Linux move follows IBM’s recent decision to let the upcoming Sametime 7.5 release connect directly to public IM services from Yahoo, AOL and Google. In addition, when the client is run on Windows, it can integrate into Microsoft’s Office suite of applications.
Read the full story on eWEEK.com: IBM Unveils Linux IM
