| Ubuntu's Karmic Koala emerges in alpha 5 |
Sep. 04, 2009
 The Ubuntu project released Karmic Koala alpha 5 (Ubuntu 9.10), which adds Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud support, a new Ubuntu Cloud file-sharing service, and default switches to GCC 4.4, Ext4, and GRUB 2. Meanwhile, Canonical launched a Red Hat-esque Premium Service Engineer support program for large enterprises.
The Canonical-sponsored Ubuntu project has been filtering out alpha releases of Karmic Koala for several months now, but the alpha 5 release appears to offer sufficient grist for the larger Ubuntu development mill, as long as unseemly digital behavior is tolerated. Or as the project says, "Do not install it on production machines. The final stable version will be released on October 29th, 2009."
For insiders following the previous alpha releases of Karmic Koala, the big news is the addition of the latest Gnome 2.27.91 development release, with Empathy and its Telepathy framework replacing Pidgin as the default IM client. Ubuntu 9.10 alpha 5 also upgrades to the 2.6.31-9.29 Linux kernel, based on 2.6.31-rc8.
Cloudy, with a chance of meatballs
For those just tuning in, the most notable aspect of Karmic Koala is its improved cloud support. The alpha 5 release offers an image for the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC) and Amazon's EC2 cloud service. It also provides support for the Ubuntu One consumer cloud service, providing file-sharing and "tightly integrated file synchronization" with Ubuntu One and other Ubuntu-based computers linked to the service.
Other major features in Karmic Koala include a new Intel video driver, which has switched from "EXA" to "UXA" acceleration, thereby solving "major performance problems of Ubuntu 9.04 ("Jaunty Jackalope"). In addition, Kubuntu is now available in its first netbook release, Social from the Start, says the project.
New default choices include GCC-4.4 as the default compiler, as well as the controversial "Ext4" filesystem instead of the still available Ext3. GRUB 2 is the default boot loader, replacing the "Legacy" GRUB. Meanwhile, the underlying technology for power management, laptop hotkeys, and storage handling has moved from "Hal" (which is in the process of being deprecated) to "DeviceKit-power," says the project.
Canonical's Premium Service Engineer program
In other Ubuntu news, Canonical announced this week a service and support offering for "large enterprises with complex IT environments." The Premium Service Engineer (PSE) support program offers a single point of contact for Canonical's large customers, "enabling a faster response time and faster issue resolution," says Canonical.
Canonical's enterprise-targeted professionals are themselves referred to as "PSEs," who are said to become "virtual team members who collaborate with IT/IS staff" with regular technical and service reviews.
Stated CTO Antonio Jose Saenz of early PSE customer Isotrol, "Having a Premium Service Engineer has been vital to getting the level of support we require to improve our operational infrastructure. As we are involved in the delivery of many open-source projects and ourselves operate a large Ubuntu and Debian server and desktop environment, being able to rely on a dedicated Ubuntu expert from Canonical reduces the pressure of supporting high-profile open-source projects externally and internally."
Canonical sees Red (Hat)
The timing of the PSE announcement during the Red Hat Summit may not be entirely coincidental. Canonical appears to be increasingly willing to compete with Red Hat and other enterprise Linux distribution providers for the hearts and minds of large corporate vendors, as has been demonstrated with is recent cloud initiatives. The competition has been sufficient to elicit a recent response from Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst, although he generally dismisses Canonical as having nowhere near the services chops to make a dent in Red Hat's enterprise turf.
As mentioned in our previous coverage of Whitehurst's comments, Red Hat has used the Red Hat Summit this week to formally unveil the final Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5.4, which adds full support for the KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) hypervisor and other virtualization and cloud-related enhancements. More details on RHEL 5.4 are available at our sister publication, eWEEK, here. This week, eWEEK has also published several other Red Hat enterprise-focused announcements, including a story on Red Hat's GateIn portal launch.
Availability
The Karmic Koala (Ubuntu 9.10) alpha 5 release is available now. More information may be found here and here.
More information on Canonical's PSE service should be here.
-- Eric Brown
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