IBM to launch MS Office for Linux

As part of its initiative to put Linux on the desktop, IBM Corp. wants to migrate Microsoft Corp.'s Office suite to Linux. Microsoft said it's not involved and suggests that IBM might do it by emulation.

For several years, the Linux operating system has been part of IBM's explicit strategy. So far, we've mostly seen server-side solutions. Now, IBM is going for the desktop.

Many Linux users would prefer to run both Microsoft's Office suite and IBM's Lotus Notes. This is actually possible, using so-called emulation. Companies such as U.S.-based Codeweavers offer such products. But this will not give you applications that are actually compiled for Linux.

Stefan Pettersson, technical manager for IBM's Lotus division in Sweden, said that there will be a Java client of Lotus Notes some time during the second half of 2004. This means that the first "native" Notes client to run under Linux will soon be available.

However, the ubiquitous desktop software package is Microsoft Office, even inside IBM. So there are no plans to abandon Office. To the contrary.

"The Office package is very good. If there's anything from Microsoft that shines, that's it. Frankly, we choose to port all our solutions to Office," said Pettersson.

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