Ubuntu Business Desktop Remix 12.04 LTS

Conclusions

Ubuntu Business Desktop Remix initially sounds like an interesting and inexpensive alternative to enterprise versions by SUSE and Red Hat. Updates are free of charge from Canonical – for a period of five years if you have an LTS version. You can purchase support as needed, and US$ 105 will see you safe in the standard version. But, this is true of any Ubuntu version.

Canonical's philosophy for the Business Desktop Remix [5], which is that of supplying a distribution for enterprise use, is well-founded. The benefits for the user are simplicity of use, free software, certified proprietary applications, and no virus worries. A customized Ubuntu variant could check all these boxes; however, if you look closer, Ubuntu Business Desktop Remix isn't all that customized.

This point is not intended as a criticism of what is undoubtedly a nicely crafted distribution but simply a statement of fact: What you have here is a normal Ubuntu LTS version, mainly designed as a marketing instrument to make "business" users take more notice of what is a very popular distribution with home users. But, Canonical does not really need to do this, considering its fair support offering. That said, there is definitely more potential in a desktop variant of Ubuntu with enterprise-level optimizations.

Whatever you choose to call it, a regular Ubuntu LTS combined with the Advantage Support package and the Landscape management software is a very cohesive solution for deployment in small businesses, even if the server side of the equation is not already running Ubuntu.