Canonical announces Ubuntu Business Desktop Remix

Canonical has announced the launch of a new remix of its Ubuntu Linux distribution aimed at corporate and government institutions. In a post on his blog, Canonical founder and former CEO Mark Shuttleworth says that the Ubuntu Business Desktop Remix simply includes changes to the standard default packages, adding that "everything in the remix is available from the standard Software Centre".

This first Business Desktop Remix release is based on Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" and sees the removal of consumer-focused applications such as games and social networking tools, while adding software for enterprise environments; these include VMware View, the Adobe Flash Player plug-in and the OpenJDK 6 Java runtime environment. "No secret sauce for customers only; we're not creating a RHEL", said Shuttleworth, later noting that he was not disparaging Red Hat, but rather confirming that the company isn't "splitting Ubuntu into a Fedora/RHEL free-unsupported / paid-supported model".

The news comes just one week after the Ubuntu sponsor confirmed that it would be pulling funding for Kubuntu, the KDE derivative of Ubuntu, and no longer providing commercial support following the upcoming 12.04 release. Ubuntu 12.04 will be a Long Term Support (LTS) version of the distribution, with both the desktop and server editions including five years of support.

The Ubuntu Business Desktop Remix is available to download from Canonical's Business page; registration is required as some of the bundled applications, such as VMware View, are provided under a proprietary licence and users must first accept the terms of an end-user licence agreement (EULA). For larger enterprise installations, Canonical are recommending the use of their Landscape management tool.

See also:

• Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Alpha 2 arrives for testing, a report from The H.
• What's new in Ubuntu 11.10, a feature from The H.

(crve)