Sun Certified Ubuntu

This is somewhat old news but I just got around to reading my April 21st copy of Information Week.

Something I hadn't noticed previously in all the news is that Sun Microsystems pre-tested and certified Ubuntu 8.04 to run on Sun's x86 servers. That's the first time that a hardware vendor has bothered to test and certify Ubuntu Linux to run on their equipment.

That's an impressive milestone if you think about it. Ubuntu has taken a lead as the Linux desktop of choice in a very short period of time, something I think a lot of people hoped would happen to Mandriva (Mandrake) or Redhat a long time ago. This event not only validates Canonical as a company, but validates their official entry into the server market.

I've been running Ubuntu on servers for a few years already. I've never waited for someone to certify Linux, I'd just test and go. Lately I find that Tyan AMD based servers work exceptionally well with Ubuntu 64 bit server edition.

It will be interesting if this is the first leap into dominating the Linux server market for Canonical the way they've already dominated the desktop Linux market. That's where the real money will be for Canonical. Home users don't want to pay for their Linux, much less for Linux support. Enterprise users are more interested in buying long term support contracts, particularly if you have servers in various remote locations.