IBM faces an uphill battle in its plans to work with Linux vendors and PC makers to deliver Linux-based desktop systems—but not one it can't win.

This week at the LinuxWorld show in San Francisco IBM unveiled a deal with the major Linux distributors: Canonical, Novell and Red Hat, to work with PC manufacturers to develop and sell what was described as "Microsoft-free" PCs.

But no PC makers were present at the announcement. And when IBM executives were asked about whether any were on board with the plan, the answer was essentially "stay tuned."

Dell reportedly has met with some success in its year-old effort to sell desktop and notebook PCs running Canonical's Ubuntu Linux. And Lenovo already offers Novell's SUSE Linux with its products. But specific sales numbers from any vendors are hard to come by.

More Here