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Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Cyber Cynic

Ubuntu partners with HP on Servers

2 comments

TAGS:HP, Linux, server, Ubuntu
IT TOPICS:Desktops & Servers, Enterprise Software & Services, Hardware, Linux, Operating Systems

While HP was slow in supporting Linux on the desktop, HP has long supported Linux on the server. HP currently supports RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux), Novell's SLES (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server), Oracle Enterprise Linux and even the community's own Linux, Debian on its server hardware. Now, HP is about to start supporting Ubuntu on its ProLiant server line.

Canonical, Ubuntu's parent company, has been working towards moving Ubuntu into enterprise servers for some time now. We tend to think of Ubuntu as the community favorite Linux and on desktops. Ubuntu started coming into its own as a server operating system in mid-2006 with Ubuntu 6.06LTS-the first Long Term Supported version. When Wikipedia chose Ubuntu to run its servers, Ubuntu officially arrived as a world-case server operating system.

HP agrees. HP will be partnering with Canonical to provide full hardware certification of Ubuntu on ProlLiant servers. This line is made up of blade, rack and stand-alone servers using AMD Opteron and Intel Xeon processors. The stand alone systems are HP low-cost, SMB (small to medium sized business) server leaders. Besides the higher-end Opteron and Xeon CPUs, the solo servers go all the way down to AMD Sempron and Intel Celeron D processors with price-tags below $400.

This certification means HP will list Ubuntu as a supported operating system Both companies are already co-operating at the engineering level to insure that Ubuntu will work flawlessly on the certified servers.

With the current economic crisis, everyone wants to get the most bang for their infrastructure dollar. This pairing of HP's cheap servers and Ubuntu LTS Linux is nigh unto perfect for everyone from mom and pop stores to the largest enterprises that need reliable, server power.

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This is bad news for Microsoft.

Submitted by Richard Chapman on February 16, 2009 - 9:06 A.M.

Fortunately for Microsoft, their partners and supporters, they have honed the art of denial to a fine edge. It might go something like this. "I'm a big fan of Linux. I even use it on one of my machines but Linux is best suited for servers, not for Joe Sixpack."

"Always a bride's maid, never a bride." "A woman's work is in the home." That Linux is only good for servers fits in nicely with those other gut churning sayings. This is not just an OEM offering Linux. It's a domino in Microsoft's carefully constructed but fatally designed empire falling down.

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Not this time

Submitted by Fat Pop Do Wop on February 17, 2009 - 6:34 A.M.

I see the point being made by Richard Chapman, but I think this partnering is different for one big reason: All the other distro's listed by SJVN that HP used on servers are big names in servers but not desktops. This time however, Ubuntu has started as the biggest desktop distro (as far as we can see) and has moved into server acceptance relatively recently.
As a Linux user for less than 3 years but with all of my clients using Microsoft almost exclusively, I see the need for us to tell our customers that fact. Now more than ever we are able to tell people that Linux has a good track record (and good commercial support options if needed) on both servers and desktops. The gut-churning false statements made by certain vendors may still be believed by the public at large if we don't tell them the truth . . .

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