IBM, Red Hat Partner on Microsoft-free PCs

IBM and Red Hat are partnering to produce a series of Microsoft-free PCs for the Eastern European market.

Although the news may not mean much to North American consumers, IBM is apparently re-introducing itself to the personal computer business after selling off its ThinkPad and ThinkCentre lines to China’s Lenovo. According to Reuters, the company is partnering with Red Hat, Austrian software distributor VDEL, and Poland’s LX Polska, so offer Microsoft-free PCs to the easten European and Russian business markets.

The systems—to be dubbed “Open Referent”—will be made by partners of VDEL and LX Polska, rather than by IBM itself, but will feature Red Hat Linux and IBM’s Lotus Symphony software, a Microsoft Office competitor which uses the Open Document Format (ODF) for easier interchange with other productivity applications.

According to IBM, Russian government ministries and businesses are being eyed as the primary market for the Open Referent systems, with Russia’s defense ministry and Aeroflot national airline expressing interest in open-source systems, along with Russia’s private Alfa Bank.

IBM did not offer any details of when the PCs would be available, or whether it planned to expand the offerings to other markets.