IBM building Microsoft-free PCs

NEW DELHI: To give a further boost to its open source initiative, technology giant IBM has entered into an alliance with three Linux distributors, Canonical, Novell and Red Hat. The alliance aims to design a package of tools that will build Microsoft-free PCs. Seems IBM wants to cash on the tepid response to the Microsoft's latest OS, Windows Vista. The package, which will allow PC users to run their computers without Microsoft software, includes IBM's Lotus Notes, Lotus Symphony e-mail, desktop productivity suites and Linux operating system. Linux OS and Lotus Symphony are both available for free. IBM claims that the package will bring down users' TCO by at as much as 30 per cent as compared to Windows PCs. The open source suite is likely to hit the market in early 2009.