Ubuntu maker to distribute Sun's Java

Canonical will distribute Sun's open-source Glassfish software for running Java on servers with the Ubuntu version of Linux, the companies plan to announce Wednesday. Glassfish, released in 2005, is Java Enterprise Edition software that lets programs run on servers; it relies on core Java Standard Edition software that Sun plans to begin making open-source by the end of 2006. Glassfish competes with open-source application software including Apache's Geronimo and Red Hat's JBoss.

Canonical is commercializing Ubuntu; a developer conference is taking place this week at Google, an Ubuntu user. In addition, as expected, Sun and Canonical plan to announce Ubuntu is certified on Sun Fire X4100 and X4200 servers, and Ultra 20 and Ultra 40 workstations, all machines that use Advanced Micro Devices' Opteron processor.