Comments on: Shuttleworth Clears Ubuntu 10.04 for Liftoff

By: Jef Spaleta

Jef Spaleta — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 22:37:58 +0000

David:
A followup.

the ceritified hardware list landed today at
webapps.ubuntu.com/certification

I count a total of 20 “Certified” servers for 10.04.

No laptops No desktops.

So what gives? The press conference said over 50 laptops and servers?

-jef

By: Jef Spaleta

Jef Spaleta — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 16:36:10 +0000

Pat:

I see currently available system76 server systems listed as certified for the last LTS release 8.04.

The laptops they have listed as certified are no longer available.

-jef

By: Pat

Pat — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 13:48:53 +0000

Thanks, Jef, for the link to the certified hardware list. Dell is the leader.

But does anyone know why System76 and ZaReason don’t have any systems listed as certified or compatible? I would have thought that was a given….

By: Jef Spaleta

Jef Spaleta — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 04:29:19 +0000

Pat:

The hardware certification stuff can be found here:
webapps.ubuntu.com/certification/

10.04 isnt listed yet..but I’ve no doubt it will be sometime in the next week.

Canonical has specific definitions for what “certified” means. Read the pdf linked on this page: http://www.canonical.com/services/certification

-jef

By: Pat

Pat — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 03:39:27 +0000

Loved your column and I’d love to hear more. I’m also interested in the answers to Jef’s questions. And maybe a little more explanation for non-insiders like me:)

When you say Ubuntu 10.04 is now certified on over 50 servers and laptops, does that mean it’s guaranteed to run on those machines without hardware compatibility issues?

And when you say OEM support is taking off worldwide, can you give us some more examples? I only know of three or four in North America — Dell (such as it is), System76 and ZaReason are all I can recall.

I assume the immediate importance of the ISV support is it demonstrates that these creators of mostly free (open-source and proprietary) software feel Ubuntu is worth whatever effort it takes to get their software to easily install and run on it. What are the broader implications for Ubuntu, in concrete terms?

It sounds like the strategy is to make Ubuntu better and better, so that when more people discover it their experiences will be positive.

Mine certainly has been. When I replaced Windows with Ubuntu about a year ago, I had only one app (which I use for work) that would only run on Windows.

Thanks to Canonical’s excellent Advanced Desktop Support, that has now been solved. I can’t imagine ever going back to Windows at home. Now if I can only consider my workplace to consider Ubuntu….

By: Jef Spaleta

Jef Spaleta — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 17:02:00 +0000

1) is there a written or audio transcript of the press conference?

2) Do you know where the full list of ISVs will be published? The hardware cert page will be easy to locate once they publish the 10.04 certificated hardware page. But verifying the ISV claim will be harder to verify as I’m not sure what it actually means. Are they saying that many ISVs are going to be publishing into the Canonical partner repository?

3) Any new OEMs mentioned concerning worldwide OEM support?
Does Canonical have a list of OEMs in different regions to use as a guide. It seems to be increasing difficult of late to find Ubuntu in online retail stores…not easier.

4) Any mention of ARM porting work?

-jef

By: Zac

Zac — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 12:25:13 +0000

Looks very promising. For so long I wanted them to recognise that ease of software availability and distribution for both free and commercial and also working with OEM’s and getting it certified on hardware platforms will be the key to growth and mainstream Linux adoption. In order to compete with Microsoft they also need Ubuntu machines on the shop floor. But first they need the fully featured Software Centre, this feature will make Ubuntu attractive. They need to put as much effort into the Software Centre as possible. Time cannot be wasted.

Very happy Ubuntu user for 4 years now. Half that time was a transition from Windows, but now I don’t need it. A slow transition showed something vastly better.

I do believe that Ubuntu can compete with Microsoft. If it has for me, it can for many others.

Happy Ubuntu 10.04 release day folks!