Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu Linux distribution, announced on July 22 at the Ubuntu Live conference in Portland, Ore., the availability of Landscape, its Web-based systems management program for Ubuntu servers and desktops.
Landscape will be available to Canonicals support subscribers. Landscape provides a key tool for the growing number of businesses that want to take advantage of the ease of use of Ubuntu and have previously seen system administration or support as a hurdle. This is Canonicals first native Ubuntu system deployment and management tool.
The new Landscape program is delivered as an Internet service rather than as a product. It has more in common with Red Hats Red Hat Network than Novells ZENworks.
With Landscape, users can manage, monitor and maintain all of their Ubuntu machines simply by registering them with the service. Focused on being easy to deploy, Landscape is immediately available with an easy-to-use Web interface to common administration tasks.
Landscapes features start with package management. With this, administrators can remotely manage a system. It allows managers to quickly find installed packages, view information about them and add or remove them.
The services also include a way to easily deploy system updates to both Ubuntu desktops and servers. This enables network managers to quickly install security and feature updates as they become available.
