IBM, Canonical, Novell, Red Hat and the distributions’ hardware partners are ganging up on Microsoft, intending to push a Microsoft-free desktop alternative involving Linux, Lotus Notes and Lotus Symphony. They think they see an auspicious constellation of stars in the sky – like PC margins – paving the way to making Linux-on-the-desktop mainstream – well, more mainstream anyway.

Linux, they say, is far more profitable for a PC vendor and the operating system, they claim, is better equipped to work with lower-cost hardware than new Microsoft technology. Of course, Microsoft isn't offering Vista on newfangled nettops but, hey, this is war.

It seems the Gang of Four are working with their local business partners in markets around the world to build and distribute a pre-loaded PC offering that features IBM's Open Collaboration Client Solution (OCCS), which in turn includes Notes, Symphony and Lotus Sametime as well as the Linux operating system of each distributor; and software apps and installation services from the local partners.

The final product will bear the brand of the local IT firms that bring it to market.

Customers, ISVs and systems integrators can develop tailor-made apps for the thing using Lotus Expeditor, which is based on the open source Eclipse programming model.

According to a canned quote from Milan Prohaska, general manager of Austria-based VDEL, who's already bought into the scheme,. "The combined power of Eclipse and Lotus - offered in a stable and secure Linux environment at less then half the cost of the equivalent Microsoft offering - will create a new ecosystem for solution providers and developers, and set new standards in value-for-the-money for the customers."

VDEL, if you'll recall, was inspired to offer a package called OpenReferent in Eastern Europe earlier this year using IBM's OCCS on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

It was reportedly a hit, particularly in Russia, where the Russia Post embraced it, dropping Microsoft for a reported 30%-35% savings, finally answering a question we asked Red Hat months ago.

VDEL has extended OpenReferent to include IBM Tivoli desktop management and security capabilities.

Red Hat is apparently using its experience in Eastern Europe as a model.

Novell has quietly been pushing a similar solution through Avnet UK, the largest IT distributor in Britain.

Canonical, the distribution with perhaps the deepest penetration into the desktop market, says it re-distribute Symphony via its repositories. Symphony 1.1 should be available through the Ubuntu repositories by the end of August. General availability will coincide with the Symphony 1.2 release expected by the end of October 2008.

Given the number of Microsoft desktops in the world, it's a mere drop in the proverbial ocean when IBM brags that Thousands of people are working today on OCCS-powered Linux PCs across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia."

It says value added distributors (VADs) like Arrow in the US and resellers will be offering OCCS worldwide.