Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Server will arrive 17 April, adding support for OpenStack’s latest release and 64-bit ARM chips.
The updated Canonical product, which allows users to run the open source operating system in their server, is the first long-term support release for Ubuntu server since 2012.
This means all commercial customers using 14.04 will receive maintenance and updates for the next five years, without having to update to a more recent version of the OS.
According to Mark Baker, server product manager for Ubuntu, the majority of customers using the server product are on a long-term support contract, which he told PC Pro makes this release “a big deal” for Canonical.
Ubuntu Server is being used by companies as a platform to build out cloud infrastructure, he said, citing existing customers like Best Buy and Netflix.
As with version 13.10, 14.04 incorporates OpenStack technology. But while 13.10 included OpenStack Havana, 14.04 incorporates the latest release of the cloud operating system, Icehouse.
“There are also a number of other components that sit around the OpenStack and cloud ecosystem that are new with 14.04,” said Baker. “These include support for the new version of Open vSwitch and Docker, a containerisation technology,” he added.
The company is striving to be “more open”, according to Baker, 14.04 will support ARM, VMware and KVM as well, and is able to host Microsoft VMs on top of the platform. This version is also the first to support 64-bit ARM.
Finally, Baker said Ubuntu has been “working closely” with Pivotal on the recently open-sourced Cloud Foundry, which will, he said, allow developers who want to deploy into a Platform-as-a-Service environment to do so.
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