Not the same as Linux x86
Linux on POWER / SPARC / Itanium / IBM's Mainframe is similar to Windows 8 on ARM... not the same than x86 versions... After all, on most machines you have to install 3rd party Software and not all of them are from IBM. These 3rd party software companies won't invest on different Linux platforms other than x86 unless:
- The market share becomes relevant for their business, thus justifying the port to other processor architecture
- IBM give them some financial incentives... I remember Intel doing that to leverage Itanium, but after billions spent HP and Oracle are still fighting about its death.