Computer Heavyweights Funding Linux Lab

International Business Machines Inc., Intel Corp. Hewlett-Packard Co. and NEC Corp. are leading a multi-million dollar effort to create a nonprofit laboratory where Linux programmers can test their software on the large computer systems common in the corporate world but not among the mostly volunteer programmers that have built Linux into a formidable operating system.

Seen as an alternative to proprietary operating systems like Microsoft’s Windows and Apple OS, Linux is an “open source” operating system that anyone can modify, as long as the modifications are made available for free on the Internet. Its backers say the publicly available source code, or software blueprint, makes it more flexible and reliable.

The consortium isn’t announcing the location of the lab, which is slated to open by the end of the year somewhere in the Silicon Forest west of the city. The group doesn’t have time to build anew, however, so a lease or an acquisition is likely, and Beaverton is the likely place, a source with one of the companies told GlobeSt.com. Intel could probably provide the space, having leased up several hundred thousand square feet in the area this year alone.