The release of the server version of Ubuntu's Linux distribution, codenamed "Dapper Drake" and officially called Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (where LTS stands for Long Term Support), was launched on June 1st, as noted in the Ubuntu wiki. Ubuntu is an easy-to-install and easy-to-use version of the Debian Linux distribution, and it has become very popular since the endorsement by Sun CEO Jonathan Schwarz at JavaOne mid-May 2006.
I.T. Works Analysis: Although Ubuntu is now mainly used on the desktop, the server version will have a serious impact on the market, particularly when it (as expected) also runs on Sun's UltraSparc hardware, besides the 32- and 64-bit x86-processors and the PowerPC-based hardware. While Red Hat and Novell are moving up the software value chain and loose their Linux focus, Ubuntu may be the big winner in the Linux server OS market. Update: Ubuntu will indeed support Sun's "Niagara" T1000 and T2000 servers, and Sun has packaged Java with the distribution. So far, Red Hat has not announced support for Sun's newest Sparc servers.
Check out the FAQ about Ubuntu and how to get free CD's of Ubuntu, and check out Distrowatch's popularity of Linux distributions. You can also check out Mark Shuttleworth's blog, the South-African billionaire (he sold his company Thawte at the right moment to Verisign) who is behind Ubuntu.
Virtualisation is red hot at the moment. When you think about virtualisation products, VMware (which is now an EMC subsidiary), Microsoft's Virtual Server (which they bought from Connectix), and open source Xen have the top mindshare. These allow you to run several operating systems on the same server. Microsoft is becoming extremely interested in virtualisation because it knows that this technology will help its customers to migrate to Windows Vista. As such, Microsoft is taking every opportunity - first LinuxWorld and now Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) - to announce its virtualisation strategy and to grab media attention. But Microsoft's strategy has changed dramatically since the acquisition of the Connectix products 3 years ago. Microsoft has come to understand that it would be better to push virtualisation closer to the hardware (and to embrace-and-extend it to avoid others taking over their Windows Server platform) via so-called hypervisor technology, as in e.g. IBM's Power hardware architecture. This allows for greater granularity of CPU and memory, dynamically reassigned logical partitions, etc.
Microsoft announced at WinHEC that it will deliver a hypervisor layer for Longhorn, called Windows Server Virtualization and codenamed "Viridian", no later than 180 days from the release to manufacturing of Longhorn, which will probably be second half of 2007. Longhorn Server will be (re)built to take advantage of this hypervisor-based virtualisation.
More info can be found at the virtualisation info and the About virtualisation blogs.
But the major announcement was Microsoft's intention to buy Softricity, an application virtualisation and on-demand software streaming company. Softricity makes provisioning of new applications onto desktops a lot easier, but it is not yet clear how Microsoft will take advantage of the SoftGrid product. One possibility may be to add it to Windows Terminal Services, and to increase the competition on Citrix by doing this, or even to Windows Live Services. Of course, Microsoft's competitors (IBM, Novell, Oracle, Sun, ...) will not be standing still, and Alesandro Perilli managed to put every player on one big, oversized (road)map.
The press release about the likely acquisition of Softricity can be found here.