IBM offers open-source software collections

IBM plans to announce on Monday new packages that combine its servers, server software and Novell's Suse Linux Enterprise Server for small and medium-size businesses. The bundles, called the Integrated Stack for Linux, include the open-source operating system along with free entry-level IBM server software products: the Community Edition of WebSphere Application Server and the DB2 Express-C version.

Big Blue is announcing the products in conjunction with the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo. In addition, it's announcing that it's achieved a new security certification under the internationally recognized Common Criteria program. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 running on IBM servers now has met evaluation assurance level 4+ for the Controlled Access Protection Profile, the company said.