June 27, 1999 Web posted at: 7:24 p.m. EST (0024 GMT) by Ed Scannell

From...

(IDG) -- IBM deepened its commitment to the Linux community Tuesday with the announcement of an education and support agreement with Caldera Systems, along with a collaborative effort to recruit systems integrators and VARs.

Under the agreement, IBM and Caldera said they will work closely with third-party companies to help speed a wide range of IBM based solutions for Caldera's OpenLinux operating system.

Caldera will supply IBM with developers dedicated to helping it port and test selected software applications for OpenLinux, including IBM's DB2 Universal Data Base, Lotus Domino, Websphere Web server, and Secureway.

Caldera will also offer technical support to IBM in supporting its Linux customers, company officials said.

Separately, IBM said it will sponsor Caldera's upcoming OpenLinux Tour recruitment campaign as part of the joint sales and marketing efforts of both companies. The tour, which will take in 15 cities, is aimed at systems integrators and software developers.

Caldera also announced it is working with IBM's Netfinity servers to ensure they meets industry standards and to significantly improve performance. Caldera has been certified by Keylabs for use on the Netfinity 3000 and 7000 servers. Other models now is testing are expected to be certified shortly, according to company officials.

And IBM announced on Tuesday that it will send to beta testers next month a version of its MQSeries for Linux. The finished version is expected to become commercially available in the second half of this year.

IBM officials said sales of its DB2 Universal Data base for Linux has so far received about 50,000 downloads and CD orders during its current beta test. The finished version of the product is due to ship to customers in July.