Canonical unveils free personal Ubuntu Pro subscriptions
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Canonical has announced a new Ubuntu Pro subscription now available in beta for data centers and workstations.
The Pro version will be available for free to personal and small-scale commercial users for up to five machines, further strengthening its “community commitment and mission to make open source easier for everyone to consume,” according to Canonical.
It is designed to extend security coverage for critical, high and medium Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs), and works with thousands of applications and toolchains such as Apache, Drupal, Node.js and WordPress.
Ubuntu Pro
In a press release, Canonical, best known as the creator of the Ubuntu Linux distro, proudly mentions its 18-year track record of “timely security updates” it has offered for the main Ubuntu operating system.
It adds that the Pro version extends coverage to ten times the number of packages in the default Ubuntu repositories, and has already fixed several zero-day vulnerabilities scheduled for release once the CVE is public.
Canonical is also keen to emphasize long-term stability. The key to this is that it can backport security solutions from newer versions of applications, meaning users are not forced to upgrade to take advantage of increased security and stability.
As part of the update, the Ubuntu Advantage for Infrastructure subscription has been rebranded. Now known as Ubuntu Pro (Infra only), it covers the base operating system and private cloud components needed for bare-metal deployments. Canonical says this makes it ideal for “organizations building a private cloud that use other guest operating systems for applications.” Despite the transition to the Pro nomenclature, no changes have been made to its price or scope.
The price for business customers is set at $25 per year for workstations and $500 per year for server, with options to add other features as needed, such as 24/7 support. New users also benefit from a 30-day free trial.
Full details on all information can be found on the Ubuntu Pro website (opens in new tab).