For a community distribution, Ubuntu sure knows how to preen itself to look good for the business world. Canonical hasn't exactly kept its plans to get on IT managers' radar a secret, but the number of enterprise-ready applications for Ubuntu 8.04 LTS that are slowly becoming available in the Ubuntu Partner repository is getting hard to ignore.

Lots of familiar projects are partnering with Canonical to give presentations this week at LinuxWorld Expo. Zmanda is talking about open source backup for Ubuntu, LikeWise Software is offering tips on cost-effective ways to achieve secure integration of Ubuntu and MS Active Directory, and Zimbra is exploring next generation messaging on Ubuntu.

See the common denominator there? It's Ubuntu, the same linux distribution my next-door neighbor -- who is not a small business owner -- uses.

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