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Canonical, the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu, has announced the desktop, server and netbook versions of Ubuntu 9.04.
Canonical on April 20 announced that Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop Edition is free to download from Thursday April 23 along with the server version of the operating system. The netbook version, known as the Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook Remix, will be available on April 30.
According to Canonical, Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop Edition delivers a range of feature enhancements to improve the user experience. Shorter boot speeds, some as short as 25 seconds, ensure faster access to a full computing environment on most desktop, laptop and netbook models. Enhanced suspend-and-resume features also give users more time between charges along with immediate access after hibernation. Intelligent switching between Wi-Fi and 3G environments has been broadened to support more wireless devices and 3G cards, resulting in a smoother experience for most users.
In a statement, Jane Silber, chief operating officer at Canonical, said: “With every release, we see Ubuntu Desktop Edition make significant steps forward in appealing to mainstream computer users. With access to the latest office productivity suite, support for Skype and Adobe Flash, and faster boot times, we’re confident that Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop Edition will see more people join millions of others and make the switch to an open platform.”
Mark Shuttleworth, CEO and founder of Canonical, in a conference call with the press, said “It’s an extraordinary time in the PC industry and 9.04 is an extraordinary release. We think it will be widely deployed. We think it’s our best release ever.”
Ubuntu 9.04 features OpenOffice.org 3.0, which gives users an office suite that is compatible with Microsoft Office. And a new integrated notification system appears in Ubuntu 9.04. This system combines the notification methods of various applications and presents that information in a simple, unobtrusive manner.
Moreover, new icons and artwork also appear in this release, part of the continual improvement of the Ubuntu user experience. Shuttleworth, in a 2008 speech, called for Linux developers to make the operating system as attractive as that of Apple’s MacOS.
Matt Zimmerman, a technologist at Canonical, said one aim for 9.04 is continuing and growing the focus on meeting the everyday computing needs of more and more people. In addition, the company worked on a number of projects that support mobile usage scenarios, Zimmerman said.
“We wanted users to be able to boot up fast, suspend and resume any time, and get online very quickly,” Zimmerman said. “We also have the first in a series of new design-led improvements – to work on improving the intrinsic experience of Ubuntu on the desktop.”
Meanwhile, Canonical also announced Ubuntu 9.04 Server Edition, which enables businesses to deploy and manage their common workloads – Web, print, file, database and mail servers – more efficiently. New enhancements include improved virtualization with the latest KVM features, clustering support in Samba file server and easier mail server setup with out-of-the-box Dovecot-Postfix integration.
Canonical has also worked to extend the range of enabled servers for Ubuntu 9.04, with 45 of the most popular mid-range servers from IBM, Dell and Sun and HP tested in the Canonical labs, the company said.
In addition, Canonical officials said Ubuntu 9.04 Server Edition will preview Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC). Ubuntu is the first commercially supported Linux distribution to enable businesses to build cloud environments inside their firewalls, the company said. With Ubuntu 9.04 Server Edition, enterprises can explore the benefits of cloud computing without the data or security issues associated with moving data to an external cloud provider. In addition, following a successful beta program last year, Ubuntu Server Edition 9.04 will also be fully available on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2).
“Cloud is the new hotness,” Shuttleworth said. “Cloud is a term used very vaguely; we decided to give it a very focused approach – elastic computing with Amazon EC2.” Canonical has released a release candidate with Ubuntu on Amazon EC2, he said.
“We make it easier for companies to run larger systems more efficiently, a key benefit in financially challenging times,” Silber said. “Backed up by a full range of professional services, including support from Canonical, larger businesses will find Ubuntu Server Edition 9.04 to be the most cost-effective, easy-to-deploy server platform for their production environments.”
New Ubuntu Server Features
New Ubuntu server features include:
“??Ç Extended hardware compatibility ensures easier deployment for users??Ç Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) can now pre-install their own default first-boot configuration of Ubuntu Server Edition and replicate it across all their Ubuntu servers??Ç Ubuntu Server on Amazon EC2 helps businesses to deploy services to external clouds??Ç Virtualization updates, including support for nested virtualization, further improve infrastructure management efficiencies??Ç New mail server features include shared user authentication and enhanced spam protection??Ç Samba 3.3 provides extended cluster support for file serving and integrates with the latest Microsoft systems??Ç Enhanced integration between OpenChange and Microsoft Exchange encourages interoperability??Ç Suspend-and-Resume features deliver power-management improvements??Ç Security enhancements with Apparmor offer greater peace of mind“
In addition, Canonical said the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud uses an open-source system known as Eucalyptus to enable a company to test, deploy and experiment with their own private, in-house cloud that matches the Amazon EC2 API.
Also, Advanced Message Queue Protocol (AMQP) support brings the emerging standard for high-performance enterprise messaging to Ubuntu users through Rabbit MQ. And MySQL 5.1 is the latest release of the world’s most popular open-source database server. Users can upgrade from MySQL 5.0 to 5.1 now, the company said.
Finally, Canonical announced Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook Remix, which comes with faster boot speeds, and with a built-for-purpose interface that means that favorite applications and Websites are just a click away.
Added Silber: “The latest feature enhancements in Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook Remix are particularly well suited to the requirements of netbook fans. Faster boot speeds, enhanced power-management features and easier switching between networks deliver the best netbook end-user experience available for download today.”
Indeed, users can download the complete Ubuntu Netbook Remix to a USB flash drive directly from Ubuntu.com and can then install and run Ubuntu Netbook Remix on a wide range of the most popular netbook machines available in the market today, the company said.
Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook Remix has been fully tested for use on a range of netbook models including:
“??Ç Acer Aspire One??Ç Asus eeePC 900??Ç Asus eee PC 1000??Ç Dell Mini 9??Ç HP Mini Mi??Ç Toshiba NB100“
“We believe it is Linux that is the key piece of opening up the PC market,” Shuttleworth said. “And despite the commentary we’re seeing from Microsoft, we think it’s Linux that will be driving change in the PC market.”