Personal Cloud Computing: Ubuntu Maverick Meerkat

The Ubuntu One service, which debuted a year ago, offered basic file backup and synchronization services. With its newest release, Canonical is expanding the offering to Windows users as well. Among other features, Ubuntu One will provide music-streaming services. So if a user is listening to a piece of music on an Ubuntu workstation, he can synchronize the content with Ubuntu One to access on other machines connected to the service.

The Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat Linux distribution is set to debut on Sunday (fittingly: 10/10/10), and with it will come a renewed vision for the idea of the personal cloud.

In contrast to the public cloud, where applications are served, the personal cloud is all about user data, content and synchronization. With Ubuntu 10.10, the Maverick Linux distribution will also take aim at improving the way users view their desktops and acquire new software.

For Canonical, Ubuntu’s lead commercial sponsor, both the personal cloud and software acquisition improvements could also lead to new revenue opportunities.

“The personal cloud is this idea that the operating system, from the consumer perspective, is a window to Internet services,” Steve George, Canonical’s vice president of business development, told InternetNews.com. “So we need to make sure that Ubuntu is very interactive with the Internet and the services we build for Ubuntu users pull that capability in. A lot of the things around Ubuntu One show how we’re trying to build those things overall.”

Read the rest at Linux Planet.