Of the major vendor news that came out of LinxWorld last week - one of the more interesting items - was not product-related but a new strategy that IBM is adopting in how it delivers open source and Linux technology to customers.

Rather than just making machines that run Linux for every type of customer, IBM is taking a vertical-market approach, with new product offerings that focus on specific industries, while tying into IBM's On Demand push. Some of the areas IBM is focusing on include automotive, retail and banking.

For the automotive industry, IBM is offering something it calls Infrastructure for Automotive Common Environment (ACE), which includes Linux technologies geared at automotive design and production. For retail, its Total Store Solutions - a package that includes Linux PCs and servers built for point-of-sale, self-checkout and store inventory management tasks, with third-party wireless and other technologies included. In the finance realm, IBM is offering Front Office Optimization for Banking. This package includes Linux-based server and PC applications that cover all aspects of running a bank, from teller position machines to customer service call centers and other areas.

Behind these industry-specific initiatives, IBM says it is dedicating 7,000 Linux integrators as well as aspects of its Global Services arm and Linux development teams in its eServer, storage and middleware technology groups. This vertical-market approach should open up the idea of Linux to more companies in specific industries that may be locked into the kind of proprietary, all-in-one systems that banks, stores and manufacturers have been used to using in the past.