The well-earned accolade that it ‘just works’ is one of the reasons that Ubuntu has been propelled to the position of the most widely shipped and installed Linux desktop. Behind that accolade are an army of community and professional developers working closely towards the goal of offering a superb quality desktop experience.

For many planners and users in the corporate enterprise the mark of quality is that products are fully tested and then certified. Only when fully backed and supported by Canonical would they consider use within their companies. You can find the growing list of these certified devices at

http://webapps.ubuntu.com/certification

Over the past few years Canonical has been working closely with a number of PC vendors to evaluate, test and certify a range of products in the desktop arena. More recently we’ve been closely collaborating with HP to certify a wide range of desktop products. Today we have published a representative range of 11 certified desktop models, with more to come over the next few weeks and months. You can see the current list here

http://webapps.ubuntu.com/certification/make/HP/desktops/

Starting with these 11 desktop models is a great step and I would like to thank the team at HP for their cooperation, at the same time calling out the work of our unsung heroes in Victor Palau’s Canonical certification team.

Mark Murphy, Global Alliances Director

Matt Asay joined Canonical in February this year and quickly proved instrumental in aligning strategic goals and operational activities. Unfortunately for us, Matt will be leaving Canonical December 17 for the lure of an early-stage start-up. While his time here has been relatively short, we all appreciate the positive impact he has had in many areas and I will personally be very sorry to see him go.

Matt is joining Strobe, an early stage start-up at the nexus of open source and the open web, much like Matt himself. He will be taking a senior business development position, and that opportunity provides an irresistible forum for him to exercise his skills in a customer-facing role at a small start-up.

While we will miss Matt, Canonical operations remain strong. We will recruit to replace Matt, hoping to find someone who carries on his love of Dilbert cartoons and The Smiths! We all wish Matt well in his new adventure.

Please join Canonical and Centrify on Thursday, 2 December 2010 at 9 a.m. PST to learn how organizations are enabling the broader deployment of Ubuntu by integrating it into their existing Active Directory infrastructure and management processes. By using Centrify’s Canonical-certified solution, they can go beyond simply offering transparent sign-on to Ubuntu systems and can in addition deliver on many requirements for enterprise deployments.

Register for the “Ubuntu for the Enterprise: Five Steps to Ensure Successful Adoption” webinar.