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IBM will announce that IBM Lotus Sametime -- the industry's leading enterprise instant messaging and Web conferencing software -- will provide server support for Linux. With the announcement, Big Blue has committed to giving customers an end-to-end solution to fully integrate Sametime with open-source platform.

At IBM's annual Lotusphere conference in January, IBM announced support for the Sametime Connect client on Linux. At that point, there were no announced plans for a Linux server to be released. But due to requests and feedback from customers, IBM decided to move ahead with the server component.

Many organizations have converted to IBM Lotus Domino on Linux, and the instant messaging and Web conferencing components on Sametime were previously only available on Windows.

"Today's announcement is a natural step forward in IBM's support for Linux in the enterprise," said Ken Bisconti vice president, Lotus software products, IBM. "With Lotus Notes for Linux and now, Lotus Sametime support for Linux, all of an organization's key collaborative business applications can run in a 100 percent Linux environment."

The Linux server version will have full feature-parity with its Windows counterpart. Sametime 7.5 for Windows servers is currently in beta and IBM is "getting very close to shipping the product, " said Adam Gartenberg Offering Manager for the IBM Lotus Real-Time Collaboration offerings. "We should have it in the next 30 days or so."

When Sametime 7.5 ships, it will include the Linux desktop client of Sametime Connect. The Linux version of the server announced today is slated to be released the first half of 2007.

When it does ship, there will also be a Sametime Limited version for Linux that will encompass the instant messaging features only. Sametime Limited supports the included instant messaging and presence awareness within the Lotus Notes client itself. At present, Linux shops needed a Windows server in their environment in order support the included Sametime instant messaging functionality.

Today's announcement will be made at the LinuxWorld Conference & Expo at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Just last month, IBM released its first Lotus Notes client running on Linux, and IBM Lotus has won awards in previous years for its support for Linux in products such as Workplace and Domino Web Access.

Lotus Sametime Connect 7.5 as it appears on Linux.

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