Canonical’s Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC) sounds like its set to get a boost from IBM. A source attending HostingCon says a deeper relationship between IBM and Canonical could be announced as soon as July 20. And the relationship, which may surface at OSCON, could give Ubuntu and IBM’s DB2 database a lift in the cloud. Here’s why.

Last spring, the world changed forever when VirtualBox implemented support for 3D acceleration in Windows and Linux guests.  I have a tendency to be behind the curve on world-changing events, so I didn’t found time to play with this new feature until a few days ago.  But what I found made me really happy.  Read on for the details.

For the Ubuntu cloud strategy to succeed, Canonical is going to need a big assist from Eucalyptus Systems — which makes the engine within the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC). But who exactly is Eucalyptus and is the company making progress with its own cloud efforts? Here’s an update.

In this WorksWithU podcast, editorial director Joe Panettieri speaks with Ken Drachnik, Landscape manager at Canonical. Landscape is Canonical’s remote management and monitoring tool for Ubuntu systems. The Podcast conversation covers the following key items…

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Ubuntu developers recently began discussing plans for deploying virtual appliances via Debian packages, a move which would open up exciting opportunities, especially in the server market.  Here’s the scope, with some thoughts.

Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth on Oct. 26 is set to speak with the press about Ubuntu 9.10 Desktop Edition and Server Edition. WorksWithU will be extra careful not to “hype” Ubuntu 9.10 over the next few days. Instead, we hope to ask Shuttleworth some timely questions about the new Ubuntu and Canonical’s long-term business strategy. Here’s a sampling of issues on our mind.

After placing its bets for years on Xen, Red Hat moved recently towards official support for KVM, the virtualization hypervisor built into the Linux kernel.  Here’s a look at what this change might mean for Ubuntu, which has promoted KVM from the beginning.

Canonical’s Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) and Microsoft’s Windows 7 are expected to debut within days of each other in October 2009. Some open source pundits will surely hype a showdown between the two operating systems. But Canonical needs to carefully communicate the broader Ubuntu 9.10 story to media, customers and partners. Here are seven potential steps to success for Canonical and the Ubuntu 9.10 launch.

Two key partners — IBM and Virtual Bridges — seem to be giving Canonical and Ubuntu a substantial lift. Specifically, IBM and Virtual Bridges have been lining up channel partners and customers that are embracing virtualized Ubuntu desktops.

It’s another small step for Canonical’s Ubuntu business, and a giant leap forward for the company’s Landscape management platform. The new Landscape 1.3 release allows IT managers and resellers to remotely administer physical or virtual servers within a corporate network or on the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). But this is more than a technology story. Landscape could play a critical role in Canonical’s effort to build revenue-generating services.