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.

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