Canonical Discussing Server Deal with Multinational Hardware Vendors

Canonical, the commercial company behind Ubuntu, is in discussion with large server hardware vendors to ship Ubuntu Server.

So far, Canonical has struck deals with small, white-label hardware vendors to ship Ubuntu Server Edition, said Gerry Carr, marketing manager. Another one of those deals is pending, although Carr did not name the manufacturer.

But Canonical is in discussions with “multinational” hardware vendors for a big server deal, which could boost its standing in the enterprise market among Linux giants Red Hat Inc. and Novell Inc.

The reason Dell decided to preinstall Ubuntu on desktops was because of demand. But is there enough demand for Dell to ship Ubuntu Servers?

Gaps remain in Ubuntu server’s functionality compared to competing products, but the server is still in its early days, Carr said. The company wants to broaden its relationship with application vendors to certify their programs to run on Ubuntu.

I don’t think that we will be seeing major server hardware manufacturers offering Ubuntu for a while yet. But Ubuntu Server is continuing to improve, maybe by Hardy Heron (the LTS release) it will happen.

[update] I found a list of advantages of Ubuntu server.