[Solar-general] ubunto version comercial

[Diego Saravia]

http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS6471960209.html


May 19, 2006

Anyone who follows Linux closely knows that Ubuntu is the most popular
community distribution. But, is that enough for Ubuntu to make a go of
it as a commercial business distribution? It looks like we're going to
get to find out.

Canonical Ltd., Mark Shuttleworth's UK-based company, has never made a
secret of the fact that it has intended to support Ubuntu both as a
free of cost Linux and as a commercial venture.

That last part, though, has often been overlooked. During the last
year-and-a-half, however, it has become clear that Canonical is moving
toward making a real business of providing commercial support and
customized distributions for business Ubuntu users.

Specially, Shuttleworth has said, in his Ubuntu wiki, that Canonical
"will never introduce a 'commercial' version of Ubuntu. There will
never be a difference between the 'commercial' product and the 'free'
product, as there is with Red Hat (RHEL and Fedora). Ubuntu releases
will always be free." However, "There are proprietary apps that are
certified for Ubuntu. Some Ubuntu-derivatives, like Impi (a
South-African customized business Linux distribution) are targeted
toward vertical markets that demand specific software, currently
proprietary, which they bundle."

Indeed, Shuttleworth started off the Ubuntu Foundation with a
$10-million donation "to distinguish the philanthropic and
non-commercial work that is at the heart of the Ubuntu project from
the commercial support and certification program that is the focus of
Canonical Ltd."

Since then, Canonical has been putting the bricks in place for a major
commercial Ubuntu launch.

In November 2005, Canonical worked with IBM to get Ubuntu the "Ready
for IBM DB2 Software for Linux" service mark.

"Being Ready for DB2 UDB is a real step up for Ubuntu, and the whole
project is moving into new and exciting areas. Our release last month
included a server edition, which provides the perfect foundation for
major database environments," Shuttleworth said at the time.

This April, Canonical and the LPI (Linux Professional Institute), the
backers of the popular LPIC-1 and LPIC-2 Linux certifications, jointly
announced the development of a certification for the Ubuntu
distribution -- the Ubuntu Certified Professional.

Jane Silber, a spokesperson for Canonical said in a statement that the
certification was in response to extensive demand from both
individuals and enterprises. "Ubuntu use in the enterprise is
increasing, leading to an increasing demand from engineers and
managers for a certification which proves an individual's Ubuntu
skills."

In addition, there have been rumors linking Ubuntu with Dell, HP, and
other computer vendors. In mid-May, one of those proved true.

At JavaWorld in San Francisco, Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz and
Shuttleworth, announced that Canonical would soon release a Ubuntu
server for Sun's UltraSPARC T1 chip, aka Niagara.

It's a long way from a community Linux distribution to an enterprise
level distribution that supports a high-end, multicore 64-bit
processor, but that's where Ubuntu is headed. It's one thing to
support just x86, but another thing entirely to port it to a new
SPARC-base architecture -- even with Linux, I wouldn't want to try it!

Shuttleworth is also looking to hire more Canonical employees, but
he's no longer just looking for Linux coders. He wrote in his blog on
May 11 that "As we've grown and as we start to shape Ubuntu into
something that works well for the community and for commercial
deployment, we need a whole new set of talent that speaks both the
traditional language of management and marketing, as well as the new
language of participation and community."

With all this going on the question now is, "Can Canonical make a
commercial go of Ubuntu?"

According to two analysts, the answer is a firm "maybe."

Gordon Haff, senior analyst for research house Illuminata Inc., said,
"Business distro? Sure. Lots of community distributions are widely
used in a variety of businesses."

"But," Haff continued, "that's different from an 'enterprise distro'
that comes with a list of hundreds of certified apps from major ISVs.
It's hard to see the incentive for Oracle, IBM, BEA, and the rest to
widely certify against yet another distro -- whatever its incremental
advantages over the competition.

Laura DiDio, a senior analyst at Yankee Group, agrees that "in order
for these 'community' type distributions to gain more widespread
deployment and acceptance in commercial environments, their models
will have to adapt to the realities and demands of commercial
businesses."

Part of that "almost certainly means that a distribution such as
Ubuntu will need the backing and support of a company such as Sun or
Oracle -- with whose name it has been linked recently," added DiDio.

"Corporate customers will want assurances on available documentation;
rapid response in releasing patches and fixes for technical glitches
or security issues; Ubuntu's integration and interoperability with
disparate environments and after-market technical service and support.
In other words, corporate customer must have accountability,
particularly in light of increased regulatory compliance
requirements," DiDio continued.

She concluded, "If Shuttleworth, Ubuntu and other open source, Linux
community distributions can fulfill these criteria, then they have a
shot. But the aforementioned issues are only half the battle. The
other big challenge to overcome is marketing and public perception and
ultimately that's a much tougher sell."

Shuttleworth, however, who became a multi-millionaire with his first
high-tech venture, Thawte, now a division of VeriSign, seems to have
the community, business, and technical savvy to challenge Red Hat,
Novell, and the other business Linux powers.



-- 
Diego Saravia
Diego.Saravia en gmail.com
NO FUNCIONA->dsa en unsa.edu.ar