IBM has decided to get back into the PC business after selling its PC business to Chinese Lenovo a few years back. The new computers will be called Open Referent and are designed for companies and authorities in Eastern Europe. The computers will be produced and distributed by Autrian company VDEL and Polish IBM partner LX Polska. The computers will use Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop for operating system and incorporate IBM’s Lotus Symphony office suite.
“OpenReferent is a highly competitive alternative to Microsoft offerings for large organizations,” said Oleg Churko, Director of Research Institute for Information Security, Minsk, Byelorussia. “Taking into account the unmatched security offered by the Linux platform, it will set a new standard for document management. We are also very happy the IBM is again taking the lead in offering full solutions based on Open Source, while mounting a real challenge to Microsoft in this arena.”
The project spawns from the recently announced IBM Lotus Open Collaboration Client Solution marketing agreement with Red Hat, and the whole idea is to offer a cost-efficient alternative Microsoft Windows, which is also easy to transition to and will remain compatible with current standards.
Aeroflot, Alfa bank and the Russian Department of defense are some of the institutions that are contemplating the new PCs. More are expected to follow as the recent conference in Moscow managed to gather quite a crowd with more than 25 representatives from major Russian departments and companies.
