IBM a reluctant user of Wine software

IBM's effort to promote Linux as a viable alternative on the company's 350,000 corporate desktops took a step forward last month, when the company's IT organization began supporting the open-source Firefox browser. However, while the move to support a browser that runs on Linux may provide a boost for both Firefox and IBM's internal Linux effort, Big Blue hasn't been nearly so eager to promote a lesser-known piece of software, called Wine, that it has used to advance Linux on the desktop.

Like Firefox, Wine is open-source software that provides an important piece of the Linux desktop puzzle. IBM's reluctance to promote Wine underscores some of the complex legal and technical issues surrounding Linux adoption.

The Wine software essentially masquerades as the Windows operating system, letting software that was written for Windows run on a Linux desktop. IBM employees have used it internally as a way of running the Lotus Notes desktop client, according to sources familiar with IBM's efforts, who say that Wine and the Notes client are part of the Linux version of IBM's standard desktop client, called the Client for eBusiness. IBM's goal is to have all their internal users running Linux, but they have not publicly said how many users currently run the operating system.

But trying to get IBM to talk about Wine is another thing entirely. IBM executives declined to comment on the company's use of Wine for this article, and while the software is mentioned occasionally on IBM's Web site, it is generally not endorsed as a tool for moving Windows desktops to Linux. Last year, IBM raised eyebrows in the Wine community by pulling an article describing the use of Wine from its DeveloperWorks Web site.

An IBM "Redbook" guide to Linux desktop migration, published in late 2004 contains one of the company's few public statements on the software. But even there, Wine is mentioned only in passing, in a section entitled "What to do if all else fails," and it is called a "temporary workaround" to get an application running on the Linux client. "This is not a solution for the long run," the guide states.

This unwillingness to publicly support Wine has frustrated Jeremy White, whose company CodeWeavers Inc. sells a commercial version of Wine.

"What they're doing is they're chilling the high-end migration opportunities for me," White said. "What I find galling is that they use it. I have tons of friends at IBM who use Wine every day to run Lotus Notes."

Part of the problem for White is that IBM has been reluctant to say what, if any, problems it has with the software. "I suspect it's legal issues or an OS/2 allergy," said White, referring to IBM's desktop operating system, which the company has stopped supporting. "Maybe they've got a deal with Bill Gates."

IBM's answer is more simple than that, according to Scott Handy, vice president of worldwide Linux strategy with IBM. IBM wants to promote open standards, like the Web-based protocols used in its Lotus Workplace suite of collaboration software, rather than the Microsoft APIs (application programming interfaces) used by Wine, he said.

"Our whole strategy revolves around Workplace, and we think one of the critical elements to Linux being successful is that we provide an open programming model," he said.