Mobile World Congress begins tomorrow, and for the first time, Canonical has a presence at the show.

Further to our announcement earlier this week, for the first time in public, we will be showcasing the brand new concept ‘Ubuntu for Android’.

Ubuntu for Android is the world’s first full-featured desktop on a docked smartphone. You can use Android on the phone and Ubuntu as your desktop, both running simultaneously on the same device, with seamless sharing of contacts, messages and other common services. Users get all the flexibility and productivity of a full desktop with the convenience of a smartphone when on the move. This is the first opportunity for handset makers and network operators to address this growth opportunity in emerging markets.

We are located in Hall 7 at stand 7C87, so visit to see Ubuntu on Android and Ubuntu TV – launched to great acclaim at CES last month – as well as the latest developments on Desktop, Ubuntu Cloud, Ubuntu One and Ubuntu on hardware for sale at retail.

More than ever in 2012, a record numbers of consumers and businesses are using Ubuntu. To set up a meeting with us during the show or to find out more on enabling your hardware with Ubuntu or working with Canonical, please email sales@canonical.com.

The Ubuntu Server Survey is finally ready to be published it makes for a fascinating read. It is the third survey of its kind and again it has been an overwhelming response with over 6,000 completed surveys throughout 2011 and a heartfelt thanks to all who took the time to complete the comprehensive survey.

The overwhelming impression is the widespread use of Ubuntu both geographically as you might expect with respondents from across the globe. but also in the broad range of workloads in which Ubuntu Server finds itself used. Every category from web and data servers to cloud shows up strongly albeit with a strong bias towards traditional workloads.

As we approach an LTS, again we see evidence of the popularity of the extended support releases. Given we have run this survey three times now over the past three years now we begin to see strong evidence of the switching from one LTS to the next, particularly as the deployment platform, so our user base is certainly staying with us as as we introduce new features and support them in the long term.

Virtualization and cloud are now key elements of Ubuntu use, and for the first time we see KVM overtake Xen as the preferred virtualization technology for Ubuntu users, significant as the platform was the first to make the switch to supporting KVM as the native technology. With that though, VMWare remains the most cited virtualization technology showing a healthy mixture of open source and other technologies at use in the Ubuntu user base.

The respondents consideration of cloud makes for interesting reading too. There is significant interest but the use of Ubuntu Server on bare metal remains the primary use case for most users today. There is strong recognition though of the emergence of this powerful technology and with the plans for ease of installation and orchestration in 12.04 LTS it will be interesting to see how this moves the dial in regards to uptake in the Ubuntu base. A deeper analysis  shows a bias towards larger companies (i.e. respondents with more servers) using cloud technologies which is to be expected and overwhelmingly there is recognition of the suitability of Ubuntu Cloud as a basis for those efforts.

Enjoy the full report, it would be very interesting to hear your comments.

Ubuntu Business Desktop Remix based on Ubuntu 11.10 is now available for corporate and government institutions evaluating Ubuntu as a desktop solution. The combination of Ubuntu’s ease of use, outstanding free software applications, certified commercial apps, and Canonical’s management solution makes for a compelling enterprise desktop scenario that saves time and money while keeping users productive. Just yesterday IT Pro published this independent assessment confirming just that.

In the past year, many businesses have adopted Ubuntu as a desktop. With the approach of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and its five years of support on server and desktop, even more are evaluating the potential benefits of an easily deployed and managed, virus-resistant platform that is widely trusted and available pre-installed from leading PC brands like Dell and Lenovo.

This remix simplifies the process of customising Ubuntu for corporate needs. Most businesses deploying Ubuntu on corporate desktops perform a similar set of tasks; removing consumer-focused applications like games, and installing corporate-focused software such as thin client apps. The Ubuntu Business Desktop Remix is a simple base image with the most common corporate changes pre-configured. It can be deployed into a corporate environment or used as a starting point for further customization.

The Ubuntu Business Desktop Remix contains all the software needed to integrate into your IT infrastructure while removing games, social networking and file sharing applications, development and sysadmin tools, and other software that organizations don’t commonly support. The first release includes VMware View, Adobe Flash Plugin, and OpenJDK 6 Java runtime environment.

If this makes sense for your business you can register to download Ubuntu Business Desktop Remix and start evaluating what Ubuntu and Canonical can do for your organisation.