IBM has said it is <A HREF="http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584_22-6233782.html?tag=nl.e550">not getting back into the PC market,</A> despite selling "Microsoft-free" PCs running Linux and OpenOffice in Eastern Europe. "We're not getting back into the PC business," said an IBM spokesman, after the company announced deals with system integrators in two Eastern European countries last week.

It is IBM's intention to sell the so-called "Open Referent" systems, based on Red Hat Linux and the company's own Lotus Symphony software, which uses the open-source OpenOffice productivity software, in Eastern Europe. IBM sold its PC division to Lenovo in 2005 for $1.75 billion, and this is the second indication of overlaps between the companies; Lenovo, having dropped the IBM brand from its ThinkPads, is now moving into servers, licensing the xServer brand and technology from IBM.