Compound Thinking

Ubuntu Below Zero Day 2

Well, there’s a lot going on here in Montreal. I’ve been attending most of the Ubuntu Server related BOF (Birds of a Feather) sessions. There seems to be a lot of attention being paid to making Ubuntu an even better server platform.

Ubuntu Server already today has a lot going for it. It has a very stable debian heritage, along with the ability to push out new server packages more quickly than debian.

I have been using Ubuntu on a couple of non-critical servers since last November, and I have had no complaints. And there was some movement toward server support for both Warty and Breezy, but this looks like the largest push so far.

Of course the Ubuntu team is planning on having stable packages of server software that they will able to support for five years. They also want to have these packages work “out of the box” as much as possible. Not only that there are plans to:

• have community testing of server hardware,
• work out a program with vendors to certify their hardware against Dapper Drake
• improving the debian-installer recovery mode with lots of shiny new coolness
• create integrated SSL support for all the applications require it
• include stuff necessary to support vendor server tools for configuration and remote management

There is more going on, but much of it is still not in any kind of determined state. But it is good to see all this forward momentum for Ubuntu on the server.