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Ubuntu Businesses Operating Systems Linux Technology

Mark Shuttleworth Sees Increased Demand For Enterprise Ubuntu Linux Desktop (zdnet.com) 158

Canonical's real money comes from the cloud and Internet of Things, but AI and machine learning developers are demanding -- and getting -- Ubuntu Linux desktop with enterprise support. From a report: In a wide-ranging conversation at Open Infrastructure Summit, Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu Linux and its corporate parent Canonical, said: "We have seen companies signing up for Linux desktop support, because they want to have fleets of Ubuntu desktop for their artificial intelligence engineers." This development caught Shuttleworth by surprise. "We're starting actually now to commercially support the desktop in a way that we've never been asked to before," he said. Of course, Ubuntu has long been used by developers, but Shuttleworth explained, "Previously, those were kind of off the books, under the table. You know, 'Don't ask don't tell deployments.' "But now suddenly, it's the AI team and they've got to be supported."
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Mark Shuttleworth Sees Increased Demand For Enterprise Ubuntu Linux Desktop

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  • Finally! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Prien715 ( 251944 ) <agnosticpope.gmail@com> on Tuesday April 30, 2019 @06:18PM (#58518900) Journal

    It's the year of the Linux desktop!

    If only someone thought of that before (:

  • by backslashdot ( 95548 ) on Tuesday April 30, 2019 @06:33PM (#58518958)

    This could be the year Linux finally makes it to the desktop.

    Imagine a beowulf cluster of Enterprise Ubuntu Linux Desktops!

    • Imagine a beowulf cluster of Enterprise Ubuntu Linux Desktops!

      It's not going to happen until it gets popular support as systemd-beowulfd

  • by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday April 30, 2019 @06:41PM (#58518996)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • No shit (Score:3, Insightful)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Tuesday April 30, 2019 @06:44PM (#58519004)
    Red Hat's getting bought out by IBM. Lots of companies won't touch IBM's stuff, so they're looking for alternatives.
    • by Gr8Apes ( 679165 )

      Lots of companies won't touch IBM's stuff, so they're looking for alternatives.

      How the mighty have fallen - that's a major shift from "you don't get fired for buying big blue"

  • CEO of company that makes X predicts X will take off this year.

  • The pivot point to this ongoing joke will be when and if Microsoft is stupid enough to turn Windows into a subscription service.
    If that point in time doesn't become the Year of the Linux desktop, then it will never happen.

    I own many, Many, MANY thousands of dollars worth of software and hardware that runs under Windows only and even I would
    give serious consideration to giving it all up and going full Linux if / when Microsoft decides to go subscription only.

    • From a profit point of view, Microsoft should build their next version of Windows on top of Linux or a BSD. It would get the server market into their hands without killing the backwards compatibility that keeps them alive (a perfect Wine, using the original source code), and ensure the corporate enviornment that is experimenting with Linux returns to the fold.
      • It would get the server market into their hands without killing the backwards compatibility that keeps them alive

        It would be a big flag day [catb.org] for device drivers. Previously, makers of multi-thousand-dollar specialized peripherals have seen flag days such as the Windows XP to Windows Vista transition as an opportunity to turn years-old yet still-working kit into e-waste that the end user must repurchase in order to keep it working.

    • by bazorg ( 911295 )

      The pivot point to this ongoing joke will be when and if Microsoft is stupid enough to turn Windows into a subscription service.

      It already is. There are many combinations of license types and contents at MS, and I'm sure there's more than those I know of where the OS is not paid up front + maintenance.

      Here's an interesting variant: Microsoft 365 [microsoft.com]
      A complete, intelligent solution, including Office 365, Windows 10, and Enterprise Mobility + Security, that empowers everyone to be creative and work together, securely.

      Add a Surface machine and you have the whole lot supplied by MS: hardware, OS, first party applications coexisting with oth

      • Read the books about the Power Platform

        But does it work with a Power Architecture computer, or does it need x86-64? #falseadvertising

        And what's that about "Low-Code Development Platforms for AD&D Professionals" in the Forrester Research infographic? I thought there wasn't any code in tabletop games like Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.

        • by bazorg ( 911295 )

          All names are taken! No more new products are to be invented until we increase the namespace !

    • by 0ld_d0g ( 923931 )

      I own many, Many, MANY thousands of dollars worth of software and hardware that runs under Windows only and even I would
      give serious consideration to giving it all up and going full Linux if / when Microsoft decides to go subscription only.

      Exactly this. We have so much industrial and scientific software that is Windows only, and costs thousands and thousands of dollars. Windows fucking up compat, or making it so that updates ruin the working of our business would push us to linux or atleast windows vm on linux.

  • Only real impediment at this point are graphics drivers and the rather iffy state of accelerated desktops/3D

    Hopefully that improves fast. I really would like to see the Microsoft Tax end before I do.

  • Please, bring Unity back as default desktop.
    • People shit on it all the time but my tiny chromebook flashed with Linux works GREAT on it. It makes very good use of TONS of meta key combinations.

      I also bind invert SINGLE WINDOW and invert screen to keys.

      Invert single window ISN'T AVAILABLE on most display managers because it's only available with Compiz. It's practically an essential feature for me. It lets me negate one window (ANY window I choose) while having another one beside it not-flipped and it's a single keypress away. If a website has a dark m

      • I was the "linux guy" at my first CS job and I would dazzle people with my windows moving around all with keyboard commands. Inverting. And unity made such great use of screen real estate.

      • I would've considered looking into it more if it wasn't such a resource hog. Ran like crap on older netbooks and in Virtualbox, and I didn't feel like learning how to tweak a new WM if it didn't run decently everywhere. Then I saw they finally enabled a low-resource mode (specifically for VM concerns)... and before the next LTS release comes out they kill it off in favor of GNOME before I had to test it out. Oh well.

        The other main reason I didn't look to closely at it was its ties to GNOME dependencies.
      • Yeap, keyboard shortcuts, this invert single windows (I was not aware of this), global menu, LIM, the HUD, it has launcher + global + window control at the top left (it's coherent), default support for multiple displays (launcher, global menu and notification area are automatically display in all displays), it has indicators to say which program is opened in which display, when multiple instances of a program are opened, you can click on it and it'll automatically display the last used window (instead of ex
  • Who has Enterprise support on their desktop? What for? What do these people do with their desktops that needs full-on support contracts?

    Most places I've worked, we got server support (both hardware and software), got long warranties on desktops and left it at that. If a desktop fails, you swap it with one from the store and get the old one repaired to replace the spare in the store. If software is a problem, you google for a solution or find another way to work. If you're using some 'big' software, then you

    • Where I work, unsupported software cannot be used. That's not the likely answer, but one you haven't considered.

      Having a direct line to someone when an update fails or something screwy happens can be important. Rather than spending time searching the web or figuring it out yourself, call up support and either they have an answer or will do the finding for you.

      Professionals who need uptime aren't going to rely in an in house Linux expert to find the answers when there is a company making the distro, responsi

  • Full Disclosure: I work for Microsoft as a PFE supporting Enterprise Customers. I have had Linux boxen as primary workstations for personal and business use for decades.

    I sincerely hope that enterprises don't start managing Linux desktops the same way they do Windows. I specifically do not want the McAfee EPO, Cylance, Crowdstrike, Tanium, SCCM, Bromium, BeyondTrust, and Avecto agents force-fed onto my machine that is "required" to be built from a bloated 22GB OS image that hasn't had a single update sinc

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