", sporting two newer virtualization technologies. First is paravirt-ops, a layer that lets Linux get along better with the dominant virtualization software today, "

"VMware and KVM use an ordinary Ubuntu kernel, but Xen currently must use a separate kernel, Shuttleworth said. That makes Xen "difficult to experiment with. I hope in the next release, the Xen guys will step up," Shuttleworth said."

"Ubuntu has risen to popularity alongside better established versions of Linux such as Red Hat, Suse Linux, Mandriva and Debian. "

" began its Ubuntu push with an emphasis on desktop computers, the latest in a long line of contenders that have attracted only a small fraction of users away from dominant Microsoft. But Canonical hopes to profit from Ubuntu's use on servers, a proven area of interest for the open-source operating system."

"Some versions of Ubuntu come with long-term, five-year support--the first and most recent being 6.04, called Dapper Drake. Feisty Fawn won't be such a version, Shuttleworth said, nor in all likelihood will its sequel. But another long-term support version is likely to emerge in April 2008, after two of Ubuntu's six-month release cycles go by, he said."

"That version will have a new variant, an as-yet unnamed version for open-source and free software purists that's free of proprietary software such as video drivers, Shuttleworth said in a mailing list announcement about Gutsy Gibbon. The Gibbon variant will take an "ultra-orthodox view of licensing: no firmware, drivers, imagery, sounds, applications, or other content which do not include full source materials and come with full rights of modification, remixing and redistribution," Shuttleworth said."

"With Feisty Fawn, Canonical and Ubuntu take a more relaxed view, if not to say an enthusiastic embrace, of proprietary software. It features new software to let people download and install proprietary software that they may use but that Ubuntu doesn't have the right to distribute, Shuttleworth said."

""We have to be very conservative in what we enable
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