First we have IBM & Linux, Coming together. IBM is offering to do free assessments to Solaris customers who want to do a cost / benefit of moving to LINUX.

Excerpts:
IBM has decided to lend Red Hat Inc. a helping hand in its struggle to wrest server operating system market share from Sun Microsystems Inc. The two companies today are expected to announce a range of initiatives designed to woo users of Sun's Solaris operating system over to Red Hat Linux.

IBM's system and technology group will begin offering free migration assessments to Solaris customers who want to know more about the costs and benefits of moving from Solaris to Red Hat Linux. Over the past year, IBM's AIX group has sponsored about 500 such assessments for Solaris and HP-UX users; the company now hopes to complete up to twice as many Linux assessments by year's end, according to Scott Handy, vice president of worldwide Linux at IBM.

Customers can sign up for the migration assessment program and learn more details of IBM's programs at www.ibm.com/linux/advantage/solaris.

The migration assessments will be conducted by the team of 150 engineers that IBM acquired in 2003 when it purchased the application porting services division of Sector7 USA Inc., Handy said. The assessments will be generally available to customers starting June 1.

IBM has also been working with 22 financial services software vendors, including Cameron Systems and TimesTen Inc., to help them port their Solaris products over to Linux. To date, these vendors have moved 33 of an anticipated 48 total applications over to Linux, Handy said.Source : ComputerWorld

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The other piece of news is that of Michael dell investing 100 odd million into Red Hat.Excerpts:
Michael Dell is investing $100m of his own cash in Linux distributor Red Hat. The investment is a private investment rather than a strategic corporate move by Dell.

Dell is investing $99.5m in Red Hat through his personal investment firm MSD Capital LP. MSD invests on behalf of the Dell family in public and private equity and in real estate.

The investment sounds like a ringing endorsement, but MSD Capital looks after about $10bn for Dell and his family, so a $100m investment is not going to break the bank. Dell's personal wealth is estimated by Forbes at $16bn.

The Triangle Business Journal, which broke the story, was told MSD did not comment on investments. But the firm noted that it employs 70 people, so the Red Hat decision may not have been made by Dell himself.Source: The RegisterPrashanth RaiTags: Open Source, Linux, Investment