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.

Canonical and Ubuntu have made their CES debut this week, and already it’s been a
resounding success. Ubuntu TV and Ubuntu One have both been of particular interest to a constant flow of visitors from media to manufacturers, exhibitors and developers.

It is almost the end of day two and there have been over 5,000 visitors to the Ubuntu booth in South Hall 4 (stand 35379). In fact, people have been so impressed, that all the Ubuntu 11.10 CDs and printed Ubuntu TV collateral have run out. We have also given many interviews to the world’s media and have already seen some great coverage, which as many regulars to Ubuntu will appreciate, will help serve to introduce Ubuntu to many new potential users.

Ubuntu rocks!

Canonical will have a presence at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, from the 10th – 13th January. The booth, in the Upper Level of South Hall 4, is at location 35379 within the Las Vegas Convention Center.

On display will be the latest in Desktop, Cloud and demonstrations on Ubuntu One, plus an exclusive Ubuntu concept design which will be announced during the show.

Find out more by coming to visit us at CES and see why Ubuntu is the primary computing environment on millions of desktops around the world and used by thousands of businesses. You can also discover how Canonical supports a rapidly increasing number of manufacturers pre-installing Ubuntu on their hardware.

To set up a meeting at the show and discuss Ubuntu, now the world’s third largest Desktop Operating System, email sales@canonical.com.

The ‘VMware View Client Tech’ Preview for Linux is now available through the Ubuntu Software Centre. This reinforces the great work done by ecosystem partners in making their latest and greatest technology available on Ubuntu.

New devices are proliferating across all industries, with the Education sector being particularly strong. Ubuntu is the natural choice within Education for virtualization products like VMware View. PC Repurposing, getting prolonged use from existing PCs, is an obvious use case for virtual desktop technology and Ubuntu is the perfect platform.

VMware View Client Tech is available now for all Ubuntu versions from Ubuntu 10.04 LTS through Ubuntu 11.10 and works with VMware View 4.6 and 5. It incorporates VMware’s latest View Client technology with PCoIP which provides end users with top performance regardless of network conditions. Download the VMware View Client Tech Preview now at the Ubuntu Software Centre.

Canonical launched Ubuntu at retail with Vodacom in October, and the Vodacom Webbook – embedded with Ubuntu – is currently available to buy in over 1,200 stores in South Africa. The product has been selling well and over the coming weeks is expected to be one of the ‘must have’ Christmas gifts for this year.

What makes it so appealing ? Ubuntu runs seamlessly on the Webbook and it works brilliantly with a range of printers, cameras, MP3 players and other peripherals. Ubuntu brings a fresh emphasis on usability that millions of existing users around the world already enjoy.

Ubuntu boots up in seconds, delivering a bundle of applications right out of the box. It’s ready to go, reliable, and security is rock-solid. It’s as effective for business as for pleasure. With LibreOffice, you can create professional documents that are fully compatible with Microsoft Office (TM). Social networking through Twitter and Facebook is easily accessible too, with the ability to effortlessly share pictures, play music and edit video.

You can buy the Vodacom Webbook here.

Last week saw the third annual Ubuntu Hardware Summit (UHS) taking place in Taipei. With over two hundred attendees present, the show is fast becoming one of the must-attend events within the software, ODM and OEM environments across Taiwan.

With standing room only at the back of the room during the Keynote speech, Canonical set the scene for the next two years including the growth of Ubuntu, the multitude of device enablement and an insight into Ubuntu Cloud and Ubuntu Server. After the Keynote, UHS then went into break-out Tracks which included topics on Ubuntu Cloud, Thin Client solutions, hardware enablement and Ubuntu System Architecture.

You can find all presentations from the day at odm.ubuntu.com and clicking the link ‘Download material’.

So, you like the idea of deploying an Ubuntu desktop to all or some of your users. You like the way Ubuntu’s light-client model can give  your older desktop machines a new lease of life. You like the fact that Ubuntu is secure, portable, and easy to manage. Best of all, you like that it costs nothing to license, and comes with a host of enterprise-grade apps that cost nothing to license either.

Now it’s time to see how it works for you in the real world. To help you plan your migration, we’ve compiled our five golden rules for success. These are things we’ve learned from the hundreds of Ubuntu desktop migrations we’ve conducted for clients around the world – from the French National Police Force to the Supreme Court of India.

Download today and discover how to:

• Plan effectively for maximum effect
• Target the users ripe for migration
• Identify the apps that save you money and hassle
• Create the right management flows
• Pilot your project to get it just right

The Ubuntu Developer Summit – UDS – is a major event in the Canonical calendar. Taking place every six months, it is the Ubuntu event which defines the focus and plans for our up-coming version of Ubuntu. In the first week of November, over 800 people, from Canonical engineers and employees, Ubuntu community members, partners, ISVs, upstreams and many more gathered to discuss and plan for the upcoming Ubuntu 12.04, code-named Precise Pangolin.

UDS covered 420 sessions, under nine tacks, from desktop to design, community to server and cloud. Attendees worked in the usual collaborative and open environment and spent the week pooling their experience and expertise and sharing best practise resulting, as always, in the very best ideas. Right now, those ideas are are represented in hundreds of blueprint documents and are being put into action by developers, community and Canonical, who are already driving forward for April’s launch. As a practical demonstration of that openness you can track our progress here (note, it’s early days!): http://status.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-precise/.

Focus on desktop and the cloud

Over the coming months, we’ll see much more of the fruits of UDS’ labour as new features are developed and collaborations and partnerships formed. Right now, the focus is on refinement, quality and stabilisation. As Ubuntu 12.04 will be a LTS release, which, for the first time, will be supported for five years, getting performance and stability right will be extremely important. For businesses, cloud is becoming ever more important, so we’ll be looking at building out a robust test infrastructure; there will be continued support for the latest releases of OpenStack and much effort will be put into improving Juju and developing the Charms collection.

For our desktop users, refinement of the interface is a continued focus and we’ll regularly run usability testing to make sure Ubuntu looks and feels great. For ubuntu 12.04, there will be a lot of developments for power users, including multi-monitor support, and improvements to boot speed, text-free boot and power consumption. And of course, the community centres around the developer programme, design, governance and loco teams. Engaging and embracing developers continues to be important (for free software) as we seek to bring new and exciting applications to the Ubuntu platform.

Our wonderful sponsors

We also wanted to take this opportunity to extend a special thank you to all of our sponsors who helped us accomplish this monumental task. Cloud Foundry, Rackspace, Google, System 76, Freescale, Nebula, as well as our media partners, Ubuntu User, Linux Pro Magazine, all attended and contributed to the success of UDS in different ways. Some gave plenary sessions;
Brian Thomason and Juan Negron – Cloudfoundry Server deployments using Juju
James Blair and Monty Taylor – Rackspace – Distributed QA in the OpenStack Project

It’s Linaro’s summit too

Also, for the second time, UDS was co-hosted with the Linaro Connect event, where the best software developers met to plan out and code the future of Linux on ARM. Canonical has been actively participating in the Linaro project since it began in 2010, and having both events run in parallel is a good opportunity to share new ideas and collaborate. ARM continues to gain more traction in traditional PC areas, such as the data center and Ubuntu continues to contribute to the enablement of ARM. You can hear more from David Brash’s Linaro plenary, An ARM Technology Update.

And a vision for what’s next

While the focus for Canonical and the Ubuntu community is firmly on the next launch , we’ve already started to think beyond this release. In Mark’s opening keynote, he talked of extending the Ubuntu mission; “‘Linux for Human Beings’ cannot end at the desktop, but needs to take into account the devices that will be used by human beings in the years to come….”. In the coming two years, we’ll start to see Ubuntu powering tablets, phones, TVs and smart screens from the car to the office kitchen, and it will connect those devices cleanly and seamlessly to the desktop, the server and the cloud. You can read more on Mark’s vision for the future of Ubuntu on his blog: or see the full keynote.

For lots more video and insight you can check out the excellent Ubuntu Developers Channel on YouTube

So, roll on Ubuntu 12.04!

As of this week, Ubuntu is now on sale in over 100 retail outlets in Portugal.

Preloaded on the new ASUS Eee PC 1215P, Ubuntu is available to buy in over 100 Vobis and Worten stores (part of the Sonae group) across the country http://www.worten.pt/ProductDetail.aspx?pid=04826099&oid=30|31|36905&c=2655842.

The Eee PC has a slim, lightweight, design and up to 9 hours’ battery life making it suitable for work, play or study.

This is another great piece of marketing activity for Canonical, through launching the Ubuntu computing experience into a brand new retail market.

This year’s Ubuntu Hardware Summit (UHS) will take place on December 8th at the Grand Victoria Hotel in Taipei. You can register your place at www.ubuntu.com.uhs

Building on the success of 2010 (with over 200 attendees), the 2011 Ubuntu Hardware Summit promises to deliver more. With keynote speeches from various members of the Canonical team and a more focused technical delivery, UHS is created especially for product managers and engineers at ODMs and OEMs, with interest or responsibility in deploying Ubuntu on new computers and devices.

Highlights will include presentations on Ubuntu Server, deploying Ubuntu Cloud, QA, power management, hardware enablement….and much more! Details of the event can also be found on the new Ubuntu Hardware Debugging website at http://odm.ubuntu.com/portal/

UHS is sponsored by Canonical and free of charge.

To reserve your space, visit www.ubuntu.com/uhs today as registrations will close on 29th November 2011.