After a six-month beta period, Canonical Ltd. is adding management muscle to Ubuntu Linux servers and desktops in the form of its Landscape systems management tool.

In this WorksWithU podcast, editorial director Joe Panettieri speaks with Ken Drachnik, Landscape manager at Canonical. Landscape is Canonical's remote management and monitoring tool for Ubuntu systems.

Canonical is offering a dedicated, local version of its Landscape systems management and monitoring server for Ubuntu, rather than insist you access the service through the company's own systems. Canonical will next month launch the Landscape Dedicated Server, which is a local copy of the current Landscape service.

Opportunity is knocking in the government market for Canonical's Landscape, a systems management and monitoring tool for Ubuntu systems. Specifically, Autonomic Resources - an integrator that serves the U.S. federal government - is now approved to offer Landscape to government customers running Ubuntu, WorksWithU has learned. Here are some quick details.

It's another small step for Canonical's Ubuntu business, and a giant leap forward for the company's Landscape management platform. The new Landscape 1.3 release allows IT managers and resellers to remotely administer physical or virtual servers within a corporate network or on the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). But this is more than a technology story.

Canonical is diversifying the ways it delivers Landscape - a remote management tool for Ubuntu servers, desktops and mobile devices.

As OSCON (Open Source Convention) gets set to start July 19 in Portland, Oregon, I'm reminded of an Ubuntu-centric conference that once showed great promise. The event, called Ubuntu Live, was co-located at OSCON in 2007. But it no longer exists. Here's why it's time for Canonical to revive Ubuntu Live for partners and customers.

When Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) arrives in April 2009, Canonical plans to introduce a separate surprise as well - a new version of Landscape. Never heard of it? Landscape (image courtesy of Canonical) is a software as a service (SaaS) platform that allows network administrators and channel partners to remotely manage Ubuntu servers, desktops and mobile devices.

Now with the Landscape 1.5 release, Canonical, the lead commercial sponsor behind the Ubuntu Linux operating system, is extending its management platform as it looks to further grow its enterprise business.