Have Ubuntu your way: 64 Studio Ltd. announces new custom distribution services

Press Release

Have Ubuntu your way: 64 Studio Ltd. announces new custom distribution 
services

Isle of Wight, UK, 22nd April, 2008

Bespoke GNU/Linux distribution specialist 64 Studio Ltd. announces today 
that its Debian customisation platform has been extended to support 
Ubuntu sources. This means that the company can now produce, maintain 
and support one-off distributions which retain package compatibility 
with official Ubuntu releases.

Rather than forks, 64 Studio's bespoke distributions can be updated in 
parallel with Ubuntu's half yearly release cycle, or against Long Term 
Support releases, including the forthcoming Ubuntu Hardy Heron LTS.

The GNU GPL and other free software licences give commercial users the 
right to remake GNU/Linux distributions as they choose, and so adoption 
in specialised products continues to grow rapidly. However, building and 
maintaining these one-off software distributions in-house requires 
developer time and resources, which might be better spent improving core 
applications.

64 Studio offers OEMs and system integrators an automated platform which 
takes the labour out of distribution maintenance and back-porting. The 
company also offers day to day developer and end user support for the 
custom distributions it produces, including documentation services. 
Customer applications and branding are integrated into both daily 
install image builds and fully managed APT servers, allowing users to 
keep their systems up to date easily. Builds can be optimised for 64-bit 
x86 CPUs, low energy consumption 32-bit hardware, or legacy systems.

Developed over the last three years, the 64 Studio platform has already 
been deployed in commercial products from Lionstracs (Italy), Harrison 
Consoles (USA) and Trinity Audio Group (USA). The free download 64 
Studio distribution has also been thoroughly road-tested by thousands of 
users around the world. All source code is provided, so customers have a 
free choice over which parts of the work to do in-house. In the case of 
Lionstracs and Trinity Audio Group, distribution development is fully 
hosted and managed by 64 Studio, while Harrison Consoles chose to build 
its own products using the 64 Studio distribution as a base. Ronald 
Stewart of Trinity Audio Group commented: "Contracting 64 Studio's 
services and expertise was one of the smartest decisions I have made for 
my company."

The 64 Studio customisation service is not just for manufacturers; it 
can also help a consultancy provide a tailor-made distribution for its 
clients. Stripping a distribution down to just the packages that are 
required and pre-configuring them, or adding applications to the install 
image that the parent distribution does not ship, greatly simplifies 
system administration. It also allows the consultant or system 
integrator to manage when and how updates are made, rather than being 
forced to follow the release schedule of the parent distribution.

Earlier in 2008, 64 Studio began offering consultancy services directly 
to customers, and has already deployed a custom GNU/Linux distribution 
derived from Ubuntu on workstations and servers at Italian industrial 
company Mac Impianti.

More details of 64 Studio's commercial projects are available at 
http://www.64studio.com/oem_products

Press contacts

64 Studio Ltd. director Daniel James and lead developer Free Ekanayaka 
are available for interview by email or phone. Please contact daniel at 
64studio dot com for any enquiries.

Screenshots of the 64 Studio download distribution are available at 
http://www.64studio.com/screenshots

Small print

Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Ubuntu and Canonical 
are registered trademarks of Canonical Ltd. Debian is a registered 
trademark of Software in the Public Interest, Inc.

ends