Here on The Fridge, we’ve covered some of the exciting work going on with the Ubuntu port to Sun’s new UltraSPARC T1 (Niagara) architecture, but now the cat is out of the bag — Canonical will be supporting Ubuntu 6.06 LTS on SPARC, with particular focus on the Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 servers. Wow! A few quotes to tell the story…

John Fowler in the Sun press release:

“Ubuntu is arguably one of the most important - if not the most important - GNU/Linux distribution on the planet and will soon blaze new trails in support for SPARC-based servers.”

Mark Shuttleworth:

I would credit the Linux/SPARC community (and David Miller in particular), and the OpenSPARC community, with the speed of this port moving from “first code” to production supportable. When I first saw David speaking about Niagara support at LCA in Dunedin in January, we all thought that Dapper could support traditional SPARC at release but then get Niagara support some months later in an update.

But the fervour with which the community at large under David’s leadership attacked the problem has meant that Linux on Niagara has progressed far faster than we expected - so much so that the first SPARC CD release of Dapper (which will be uploaded a little after the other architectures when we make the Dapper release) will support most UltraSPARC T1 machines out of the box.

Simon Phipps:

Why Ubuntu? Well, it’s by far my favourite GNU/Linux (and I’m not alone - it was the system NexentaOS GNU/OpenSolaris was built from too), it’s based on the rock that is Debian and best of all the company behind it has a very Software 3.0 approach to business. As Cote is quoted as saying on TechTarget, the possibilities with Ubuntu are fascinating.

So look forward to running a fully-supported Dapper Drake on some seriously sexy hardware!

[Discuss]

Ubuntu, popular on desktops, is increasingly popping up on servers that are hosting Web pages or applications, Shuttleworth said. Those areas are also well-suited for the T1000 and T2000 servers, which can process up to 32 separate threads simultaneously. The Ubuntu release will become the first distribution of Linux to officially support the new servers, he said.

Sun has officially announced that Ubuntu Dapper Drake will run on its UltraSPARC T1 processor. With Canonical having said that Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Long-Term Support) is to be the first corporate distribution in its short but eventful history, the announcement adds meat to its promise by taking Ubuntu into the data centre.

The UltraSPARC T1 – also known as the Niagara – runs Sun’s current range of Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 servers. Through the OpenSPARC initiative, Canonical engineering and the Ubuntu community were given open access to the design of the UltraSPARC T1 processor. The release of the Ubuntu GNU/Linux distribution on UltraSPARC T1 took only ten weeks after the open source release of the chip design.

Dapper Drake will be supported for three years for the desktop version and five years for servers, compared to 18 months for the current 5.10 “Breezy Badger” version.

UK-based Canonical Ltd. will introduce all-new versions of its popular Debian-based Linuxes — Ubuntu, Kubuntu, and Edubuntu — along with its first enterprise server edition on June 1.

The Ubuntu community has had a long tradition of celebrating the release of a new version. Ubuntu users and Local Teams around the world have already started to plan the worldwide celebration of the release of Ubuntu 6.06 LTS.

You can find parties on the Release Party wiki page. If you want to organize your own party, then feel free to use the wiki page to coordinate your efforts. If you use flickr, then please tag your photos with the “ubuntu” tag so that it will show up on our sidebar.

[Discuss]

A “Hug Day” is where volunteers join up in IRC, #ubuntu-bugs, and help sort out bug reports from users. You can work in a nice team, make sure the bug reporters’ concerns are heard, gather all the information needed so developers can fix bugs, close useless bugs, find out where the bugs come from, and eventually work together with upstream to make changes happen, and get experience in hacking and fixing bugs.

Daniel Holbach wants to motivate more of you to participate in Ubuntu Hug Day. A “Hug Day” is where volunteers join up in IRC, #ubuntu-bugs, and help sort out bug reports from users. You can work in a nice team, make sure the bug reporters’ concerns are heard, gather all the information needed so developers can fix bugs, close useless bugs, find out where the bugs come from, and eventually work together with upstream to make changes happen, and get experience in hacking and fixing bugs.

Time is short, so the team will try to triage as many bugs as possible, but specifically look into the targets outlined at http://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuBugDay for more information. The Hug Day starts this Wednesday, May 3rd, and will run throughout the day and night, so drop on by and get involved!

[Discuss]

At the 4th annual Linux Desktop Summit in San Diego yesterday, Jane Silber, the chief operating officer of Canonical, sat down to talk to Computerworld’s Eric Lai about how the upcoming June release of Ubuntu 6.06 might appeal to corporate users, too.

Due to the schedule slip, the final release of Dapper didn’t ship today, but instead the team has delivered a rock-your-socks-off beta for our testing pleasure… If ever there was a time for keen testers to upgrade, it’s now! We strongly encourage you to try it out and report bugs so that the Ubuntu team can make sure 6.06 is the best release EVER.

The Ubuntu team is proud to announce the Beta Release of Ubuntu 6.06 LTS - codenamed “Dapper Drake”. The Beta Release introduces the new Desktop CD, which can be used both to try Ubuntu “live” and to install the system.

Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (long-term support) will be the first Ubuntu release to be supported for three years on the desktop, and five years on the server.

See the release announcement for download locations and a list of tasty treats you’ll find in this awesome release!

[Discuss]