During a press briefing at LinuxWorld today in San Francisco, IBM announced a new partnership with Red Hat, Novell, and Canonical to offer "Microsoft-free" personal computers with IBM's Lotus Notes and Lotus Symphony software. The goal is to provide a preintegrated stack that can serve as a complete alternative to Windows and Microsoft Office.

IBM hopes that disillusionment with Vista and uncertainty about Microsoft's long-term roadmap will create an opening for Linux to emerge as a stronger contender in the desktop market. The Linux and Lotus bundle will give consumers a low-cost desktop productivity option that is built around open standards from the ground up.