Ubuntu JeOS 7.10 (Just Enough Operating System, pronounced "juice") has started shipping yesterday. The distribution was announced in September, this year, in San Francisco at the VMWorld conference.

Ubuntu JeOS is an operating system designed for virtualized environments, a more compact and higher-performance base for virtual machine appliances that bundle the operating system with higher-level software.

Stephen O'Grady, analyst at RedMonk, said two months ago about this operating system the following:"The efficiencies inherent in an operating system that is built for a virtualised world mean that ISVs looking to deploy their applications in this lucrative and growing market have an obvious deployment target in the Ubuntu JeOS Edition. As the delivery platforms and economics of licensing continue to change, the flexibility and reach of the Ubuntu operating system make it an increasingly popular choice for far sighted ISVs."

The virtual appliances developers will have a compelling platform in Ubuntu JeOS, optimized for virtualization, and which reduces the complexity and maintenance costs normally associated with general purpose operating systems.

One of the first software makers which started using Ubuntu JeOS, was Business Objects that created a virtual appliance, having a pre-installed and pre-configured BI system running on VMware's virtualization platform.

The process of virtualization allows higher-level software and OSes to run in the so-called virtual machines, which can be started, stopped saved to disk or even moved from a computer to another. The hypervisor is the base of the virtualization, which controls the resources a particular virtual machine can use, makes back-ups of data and moves the virtual machines between real computers.

Mark Shuttleworth, founder of the Ubuntu Project, talking about virtualization and Ubuntu:"Virtualisation is the key driver of data center restructuring at present, and Ubuntu's popularity with developers makes it an excellent choice for the next generation of virtualized environments. We have worked with VMware to deliver a version of Ubuntu that complements its exceptional virtualisation capabilities, providing a solution for the ISVs building virtual appliances and for the enterprises planning to deploy them."

You can download Ubuntu JeOS 7.10 right now from Softpedia.