With the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo kicking off this week, today we conclude our series of interviews with Linux experts (see the newsletter archives for the previous interviews). This week, I talked with Matt Zimmerman, chairman of the technical board and CTO for Ubuntu - the Debian-based Linux distribution, which has become one of the most popular Linux flavors among open source enthusiasts. We spoke about Ubuntu's latest LTS offering, whether Ubuntu is being adopted on servers, and how to compare one open source organization to another.

Here's our Q&A:

Q: To what do you attribute the sky-rocketing popularity of Ubuntu as a desktop platform, vs. more established desktop distros, such as Red Hat/Fedora, SuSE, etc.?

A: There were a substantial number of Linux users, and potential users, who were looking for a platform they could relate to: community-oriented, desktop-focused, easy to use. More experienced users appreciated Ubuntu's roots in the Debian distribution and its fast release cycle.

Q: What has been the reception of your 6.06 LTS offering? What happened behind the scenes, leading up to LTS' launch, that made that happen? (Both from a technical/software standpoint and in terms of support/developer resources inside the organization.).

A: 6.06 LTS has been very warmly received, both among our traditional desktop user base and a new wave of Ubuntu users deploying servers. The theme of this release has been the long-term support offering. We took a conservative approach to development and focused on creating a platform which would be supportable for a longer period of time rather than adding a large number of aggressive new features.

The Canonical support team [Canonical is a company that packages and supports Ubuntu] was directly involved in the decision-making process, which led to the release plan, and they're confident about standing behind 6.06 LTS for its full lifetime (three years on the desktop, five years on the server).

Q: How is Ubuntu on the server side being adopted? Is it as fast as desktop adoption? And what are the challenges for Ubuntu going up against Red Hat, et al in the server room/data center?

A: This is difficult to measure accurately, but indications are strong that Ubuntu server deployments are growing much more quickly since the release. Red Hat and Novell are much more established in that space, both in terms of their existing customer base and in having a track record with longer product lifetimes.