IBM has been beta-testing the Linux Notes client internally with about 5,000 IBM users since last summer. "This is something that's been battle-hardened and tested already," Fontaine said.

The client will be supported by Lotus for Red Hat Enterprise 4 users upon the July 24 release and will provide support for SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 within 90 days, according to the company.

Analysts said the Notes client could be an interesting development in the still-nascent desktop Linux marketplace.

"IBM is clearly walking the talk that they're continuing to move on the open-source front," said Dan Keldsen, an analyst at Boston-based Delphi Group. "That certainly makes complete sense to me that they're still moving in that direction."

Allowing Linux users to maintain all the other collaboration features of Notes could help fuel push Linux on the corporate desktop, he said.