Ubuntu 10.04 LTS adds business and ease-of-use tools

Canonical has high hopes for its latest release: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Long Term Support). Also known as Lucid Lynx, this new version is the one that, from many indications, the company hopes will take Ubuntu from being a fan favorite to a commercial success. Based on my first look at the release candidate, Canonical's hopes may be realized.

Aiming for the business user

Make no doubt about it, Canonical wants you, and any business you might own, to buy into Ubuntu 10.04 on the server and in the cloud.

The server version, which will be available on April 29, 2010, has almost 100 open-source and proprietary application providers certifying their programs on Ubuntu Server Edition. That version will include Alfresco, Ingres, IBM, VMware, Yahoo and Zimbra. It also includes improved installation and management tools for Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC) and Amazon EC2. And the new version is named Long Term Support for a reason -- users are guaranteed five years of free security and maintenance updates.

Dell, which already supports the Ubuntu Linux desktop, has also announced its support for the server side and the Ubuntu cloud on its PowerEdge-C product line -- servers designed for building cloud environments.

Testing it on the desktop

I downloaded the April 25, 2010, release candidate of the desktop distribution and installed it on two identical systems: Dell Inspiron 530S computers powered by a 2.2-GHz Intel Pentium E2200 dual-core processor with an 800-MHz front-side bus. Each had 4GB of RAM, a 500GB SATA drive and an integrated Intel 3100 GMA chip set. I ran Ubuntu as the native operating system on one; on the second, I ran the operating system on a VirtualBox virtual machine on top of Windows 7.

I was impressed with how easily both installations went. Sure, if you were going to set up a dual-boot Windows/Linux system you'd need to know a bit about what's going on under the PC's hood, but a bright kid could do the basic installation. (I know that to be true because I loaned a freshly burned Ubuntu DVD to a neighborhood sixth grader and he had it running in a few minutes.)

Incidentally, the Ubuntu release candidate was just a trifle too large for a CD. The installation media works just fine on DVDs and USB sticks, both of which I used, but Canonical needs to lose those last few fatty bytes before the final release.

While Canonical wants to make the server and cloud easy to use, its desktop really shows its dedication to making Linux as painless as possible. For example, the new version doesn't include GIMP, an all-the-bells-and-whistles image editor like Adobe Photoshop. It's not a bad idea. Most people don't need that kind of heavy-duty image editing power or the complicated commands that come with it -- they just want to get rid of red eye. So instead, Canonical supplied F-Spot, which is as easy to use as Google's Picasa.

The push to make Ubuntu easy to use is continued throughout this release. For example, Gwibber, an open-source social network client that connects with Twitter, Identi.ca, Facebook, Flickr and Digg, among others, is built into the desktop. The same is true of Ubuntu's default instant-message client, Empathy.