IBM today said it will offer a global support service for corporate Linux users. The deal will take on board all the major Linux distributions, including Caldera's OpenLinux, Red Hat Linux and Pacific HiTech's version. The company also pledged to ship its WebSphere and OnDemand Server applications for the open source variety of Unix. WebSphere will ship in the third quarter. A ship date for OnDemand was not made available, but the product will enter the final testing stage in the next quarter. WebSphere provides transaction processing facilities, while OnDemand allows administrators to centrally manage server-based applications. IBM said it also plans to extend its Linux line with security software. ®