As the launch of Ubuntu "Feisty Fawn" 7.04 draws near, proponents of the Linux operating system (OS) are predicting much wider adoption of it in server environments.

Bolstering that belief is Canonical Ltd.'s -- Ubuntu's corporate sponsor -- promise that the OS's existing server functionality would be better marketed in 2007.

Ubuntu has always had a server component, but it really shines on the desktop. At DistroWatch.com, a popular Web site that tracks major Linux distributions, Ubuntu has
consistently ranked number one with end users month over month.

Beginning with version 6.06, Ubuntu developers like Benjamin Mako Hill began promoting Ubuntu as the server option for IT managers looking for Windows alternatives. Mako -- his preferred nom de guerre -- wrote The Official Ubuntu Book in 2006 and works at the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge. Ubuntu's developers have been running the OS on their servers ever since the Warty Warthog Release in October 2004.

"The success of the desktop distribution really distracted people from that good effort on the server side," Mako said.

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