Linux has taken another big step toward commercial legitimacy.
IBM (IBM) said Thursday it would work with distributor Red Hat Software to bring the free operating system to its server and client systems, starting with Netfinity servers and including work stations and desktops.
"IBM has long been a leader in powerful, reliable computing solutions," Red Hat chief executive Bob Young said in a statement. "This is an important milestone in the rapidly growing acceptance of Linux."
Linux was hatched by developers as a Unix-based alternative to Microsoft's Windows platform, and has been gaining momentum over the past year with a series of endorsements from tech heavyweights.
Last September, Intel bought a minority stake in Red Hat; in December, Sun Microsystems said it would add Linux compatibility to its Solaris operating environment; and just last month both Hewlett-Packard and Silicon Graphics committed to using the platform on some of their Intel-based machines.
Under the deal, IBM won't install Linux itself in its hardware. That will be left up to resellers or customers. But the company plans to back Linux with technical support, which could be key to the platform's wider adoption.
While Linux has gained a reputation as a stable operating system, companies have been skittish to embrace it for fear that there would be nobody to call when problems cropped up.
"With this announcement, the technical support argument against Linux in the enterprise becomes moot," said Bill Peterson of market researcher IDC.
