IBM announced on Monday that it will donate $40m of its software tools to the public domain in a move to create an open-source organisation aimed at developers. An organisation called Eclipse will make available some of IBM's software programming tools to developers to create applications for e-businesses and Web services. More than 150 of the leading open-source companies, such as Linux distributors Red Hat and SuSE, along with Merant, QSSL and Rational, will be part of the Eclipse community. IBM has made a strong push into the open-source sector in recent years. Open source and free software represent a challenge to Microsoft and its ubiquitous Windows operating system software that can cost businesses thousands of dollars a month to license. Open-source applications are generally considered lower-cost alternatives. "It shows IBM's commitment to open-source software," said IDC analyst Dan Kusnetzky. "It also shows that IBM understands that to reach business developers to create open-source applications, it has to let them adopt software tools for open source to be successful in major enterprises. "Convincing the developers inside of large organisations or the developers that create software for large organizations to use open-source tools is critical," Kusnetzky added. Nearly a year ago, IBM said it would plow $1bn into Linux -- underscoring its increasing commitment to the open-source operating system -- across all product lines: PCs, portables, servers and mainframes. For IBM, Linux represents a single operating system that can span a range of disparate hardware, from wristwatches to the company's multimillion-dollar supercomputers. IBM also sees Linux and open source giving it a competitive edge for developer talent over Sun Microsystems and its proprietary Solaris operating system. By seeding the market with tools for building open-source software, IBM gains a large base of developers building applications that can run on its servers. The company could also benefit by offering to its customers programs built under the open-source development model, in which thousands of programmers can collaborate on writing and debugging software. Monday's announcement marks another step in the company's Linux strategy. The Eclipse-based tools run on both Linux and Windows, which allows developers to create a single application rather than going through the hassle of creating software in Windows and transferring it to Linux, according to IBM. The hope for Eclipse is that with tools that work directly on both operating systems, Linux developers can more easily turn to the more abundant software tools available for Windows, helping to increase the number of available Linux applications. IBM said that more than 1,200 individual developers from 63 countries are participating in the Eclipse open-source community. Staff writer Mike Ricciuti contributed to this report. See the Developer News Section for jobs and the latest headlines. Have your say on all developer topics. From j2ee, to C++, from Visual Basic to Javascript plus much more. Share your experience with others on the Developers Forum Let the editors know what you think in the Mailroom. And read other letters.