IBM counted noses and says there are now nearly 1,000 Linux applications that run on its mainframes, a 100% jump over this time last year, a fact it attributes to virtualization and basic mainframe performance.

IBM recently reported a 390% jump in mainframe sites running Linux. It says more than 60% of its mainframe revenue is now coming from new workloads, with approximately 20% of the revenue and 30% of the MIPS coming from Linux customers, which is what has the ISVs interested.

It also says that the number of venture-backed start-ups using mainframes has tripled in the last two years. It doesn't say whether those are the VC in bed with IBM.

IBM mainframe revenues were up 25% in Q3.