OStatic

In one of the largest enterprise-mandated migrations away from Microsoft's Office suite ever, Linux Magazine and German sources report that 360,000 IBM workers have been ordered to switch from Office to IBM's own Lotus Symphony suite. Symphony isn't open source, but it is free, and is deeply rooted in open source, originally based on OpenOffice code. Apparently, the employees have only ten days to switch, and Open Document Format (ODF) will become the standard file format at IBM, replacing .doc files. The German economic newspaper Handelsblatt also reports that 330,000 IBM workers already use Symphony.

Today IBM announced that it has teamed with Canonical and Virtual Bridges to offer a Linux-based virtual desktop computing environment. With this product, IBM hopes to emphasize and increase adoption of its Lotus collaboration software, as well as promote the use of Linux (Canonical's Ubuntu) by way of Virtual Bridges' VERDE desktop virtualization platform.

The virtual desktop uses IBM's Open Collaboration Client Solution software, and includes Lotus Notes and Lotus Symphony (Symphony specifically uses the Open Document Format). While whether or not including Lotus applications will draw businesses away from purchasing licenses for costlier office/collaboration suites is as yet unknown, the Lotus name recognition coupled with the virtualized desktop might garner at least a second, serious, look from businesses wrestling with moving to more open platforms.