More than five years after Big Blue introduced Linux to the iSeries, IBM has claimed an important milestone in its embrace of what was then an upstart operating system. Sybase Unwired Accelerator, which securely extends corporate applications to mobile environments, is the 2,500th Linux application to be made available for IBM’s POWER processor-driven platforms, which include the System i.

"A booming customer demand to cut costs and consolidate workloads has spawned a growing ecosystem of application vendors supporting the IBM Linux on POWER platform," says IBM’s Scott Handy, vice president, worldwide Linux and open source. "The world's fastest growing operating system offers a secure, reliable and high performing platform for customers and independent software vendors to grow revenue and expand into new markets."

This year alone, IBM and its ISVs have brought 372 new applications for Linux on POWER to the System i environment through the System i Initiative for Innovation programme launched in 2005. And there have been 670 applications for Linux on POWER introduced to the System p environment, beefing up the System i’s sister’s portfolio of business applications.

The number of tested, native applications available for the Linux on POWER platform has grown more than 200 per cent in the last two years, marking it as a fast-developing new IT ecosystem, says IBM. The most lauded recent addition to the Linux on System i armoury has been 3Com’s IP Telephony solution.