Ubuntu is probably the fastest growing, but above all one of the most popular Linux distributions you can find today. Ubuntu is based on Debian, but one of the main goals with Ubuntu is that everyone should be able to use it, not just the hardcore linux followers. Linux still has a ruimor of being something exotic and alien. Ubuntu with its slogan “Linux for human beings” is suppose to change all this and now that Sun has chosen to back up Ubuntu it could only get better for the distribution.
Even if it wasn’t said out loud it seems like the coming Dapper Drake (Ubuntu 6.4 atm.) will sport Sun’s multi-core processor Niagara, together with the x86, x86-64 and PowerPC architectures when it arrives in June. Exactly how Sun will contribute to the development of Ubuntu is not clear at this day, but from what it seems the support will be rather massive.
“The odds are quite good that we will be aggressively supporting the work that Ubuntu is doing, /…/ In the hardware we ship, I don’t want to be Solaris only, because then I will just define my market to be smaller than the opportunity…I think you should expect to see more of the relationship, and stay tuned.“
As thanks for this Ubuntu will support Sun and its development of Java. Sun has been looking for a new partner since Microsoft pulled out and stopped including Java with operating systems and seem to have found it with Ubuntu.
