For years, Linux backers have been saying it's time for their favorite OS on the desktop because it saves money, bolsters security and offers open standards for corporate IT departments. But that time has never quite arrived, prompting IBM is to take a vastly different tack: an Open Client Offering software package that allows companies to deploy and use the same multi-platform applications on the operating system of their choice, be it Microsoft Windows, Linux or Macintosh OS X.

The idea, according to IBM, is that open-standards-based suite of applications will allow users to collaborate and work more efficiently while making life easier for corporate IT departments that won't have to piece together disparate systems.

In an announcement Monday, IBM said the Open Client Offering package will allow companies to buy one application suite for e-mail, instant messaging, Web browsing, social networking and ODF-based productivity software for all of its users. "This is about access to office functionality from any client," said Adam Jollans, IBM's open-source and Linux strategy manager.

The company has been putting together similar packages for customers on a one-off basis, he said, and will now bring them together for all users.

The new offering was made possible because IBM has been building some of its most powerful collaboration products, including Lotus Notes and Sametime, with the Eclipse rich client development platform. Eclipse allows applications to be built once and then run across different operating systems where they behave like native applications, Jollans said.