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Canonical is getting ready to release Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Server Edition. You can download it for free on Thursday, April 24.

“Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Server Edition is built for business,” says Jane Silber, COO of Canonical Ltd. “This release brings together significant feature and stability improvements to a free and open platform. Ubuntu 8.04 LTS is at the center of a growing ecosystem of applications that serve businesses of all sizes extremely well. We look forward to seeing its adoption grow across the five years we will support it.”

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Ubuntu 8.04 Long Term Support (LTS) Server Edition adds new features that aim to enhance the performance, stability and security of this fully supported general platform, according to Canonical. The LTS release sees further expansion of the commercial ecosystem of software, hardware and services vendors supporting Ubuntu Server.

The extended maintenance period meets demand from business users to deploy Ubuntu widely over a period of years, the company said. It also positions Ubuntu Server as a platform on which hardware and software vendors can build commercial solutions. A wide range of vendors have declared support for Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, and more are currently testing and certifying the release.

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Microsoft unveiled a public beta for its hypervisor-based server virtualization technology. Known as Hyper-V, the technology is featured with some versions of Windows Server 2008.The beta for Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V offers features not previously available in the September 2007 Community Technology Preview, such as quick migration, server core roles, and server manager integration.

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Microsoft said Hyper-V is designed to help reduce operating costs, increase hardware use, optimize  infrastructure, and improve server availability.

Microsoft Hyper-V could receive a warm welcome, especially from small and midsize businesses, according to Gordon Haff, an analyst at Illuminata I spoke with earlier this week for a story I penned at NewsFactor. There is a large number of Microsoft shops in the marketplace, he said, that tend to prefer to use Microsoft software across the board.

What do you think of Hyper-V? Or virtualization technology in general, for that matter? Pundits have been spreading its coming fame for years, and it seems that its day has finally arrived.

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Meanwhile, Microsoft reached a major milestone in development of Windows Server 2008 release candidate one (RC1) for customers to download and evaluate. In addition, Microsoft committed more than $150 million worldwide for outreach and demand generation to IT professionals and developers, and disclosed additional details and partner programs in preparation for the ”
“Heroes Happen Here” launch events, beginning on Feb. 27, 2008, in Los Angeles.

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The launch features Windows Server 2008, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and Microsoft Visual Studio 2008, and the theme is focused on celebrating the incredible work that IT professionals and developers do to deliver heroic results to their organizations, colleagues and customers.

As SQL Server 2008 moves into areas such as spatial data support and business intelligence, specialized partners are already adopting the technology to better meet the needs of their customers. For partners building applications for SQL Server 2008, new and innovative methods of product education are readily available. In addition, SQL Server 2008 Virtual Labs, a new offering available on Microsoft TechNet, provides a deeper dive into specific areas of SQL Server 2008.

Red Hat and Sun Microsystems have finally found something to agree upon. On Monday, Red Hat signed a pact with Sun to advance open-source Java software. Specifically, Red Hat signed Sun’s contributor agreement that covers participation in all Sun-led, open-source projects by all Red Hat engineers.Red Hat also signed Sun’s OpenJDK Community TCK License Agreement. Red Hat said it is committed to contributing to the Java platform and to distributing a compatible, open-source Java software implementation.

“Red Hat fully supports Sun’s courageous decision to open-source Java technology,” said Sacha Labourey, CTO of JBoss, a division of Red Hat, in a statement. “After more than 10 years of continuous leadership, the Java technology ecosystem will enter an era of accelerated innovation and benefit from extreme pervasiveness on a wide range of environments.”

Red Hat is the first major vendor to license the Java SE Technology Compatibility Kit in support of Java SE compatibility. But what does this mean to you and me? Better Java and Better Red Hat. If you use either of these technologies, this is good news. Red Hat and Sun, the inventor of Java, have been antagonists in the open-source arena. This partnership will make our lives easier in the end.

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