AWS introduces Ubuntu Desktop for Amazon WorkSpaces

Amazon WorkSpaces now offers support for Ubuntu Desktop 22.04 LTS. Ubuntu is a popular Linux distribution published by Canonical and the first third-party Linux operating system supported by Amazon Workspaces. With this launch, Amazon WorkSpaces customers now have the flexibility to select Amazon Linux, Microsoft Windows, or Ubuntu desktops depending on the specific needs of their end users. Customers can easily provision and scale Ubuntu WorkSpaces for developers, data scientists, and engineers as high-performance cloud-based development desktops, or for other non-technical users as general-purpose desktops. Ubuntu is one of the most popular Linux distributions among developers. However, supporting a large team of remote Ubuntu users can be challenging for IT organizations. Since developers are required to quickly build, test, and deploy projects across multiple environments, having the ability to rapidly spin up and tear down instances is crucial. This often requires IT to procure and configure expensive physical workstations, update on-premises Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solutions, or deal with the complexity of managing instances via a do-it-yourself (DIY) cloud-based Ubuntu solution. Amazon WorkSpaces gives customers the flexibility to support a broad range of workloads and types of end-users – with the operational agility, cost-effectiveness, and security of a fully-managed AWS service. Customers can quickly launch Ubuntu desktops in their preferred configurations whenever they are needed and only pay for what they use. Since Ubuntu desktop, Amazon Linux, and Microsoft Windows for WorkSpaces share the same management tools and processes, overhead and complexity is minimized when managing multiple desktop fleets. Ubuntu Desktop for WorkSpaces is available with AWS SDKs and the latest toolchains for Python, Rust, Ruby, GCC, Go, PHP, and Perl, creating an ideal desktop environment for cloud native and open-source development. And since Ubuntu Desktop for WorkSpaces is built on Ubuntu Long Term Support (LTS) release, customers also get long-term stability and expanded security updates. Ubuntu Desktop for WorkSpaces is available today in all regions where Amazon WorkSpaces is available, except for AWS China regions. Customers can enable Ubuntu desktops from the Amazon WorkSpaces console, AWS API, or AWS CLI alongside any existing managed Windows or Amazon Linux desktops, and pay only for what is used with no upfront costs or software purchases required. To get started, log into the [AWS Management Console](https://console.aws.amazon.com/workspaces), and provision an Ubuntu WorkSpaces bundle.