Kubuntu is one of those few GNULinux based distributions which brings the two leading technologies together - Ubuntu and KDE. There are quite a lot of businesses which are using this combination in their set-up. Till now there was no professional support available for Kubuntu users. To fill this gap the Kubuntu community has launched commercial support for businesses, organizations and individuals.

　　The Kubuntu team is partnering with Emerge Open to offer this service which is called 'Kubuntu Commercial Support provided by Emerge Open'.

　　Jonathan Riddell, the lead Kubuntu developer says, “Emerge Open are good at putting together business opportunities with businesses. In our case we have a popular distro lacking professional support and Emerge Open are able to put us together with this office in England to provide the missing link."

　　Lack of commercial support can be disappointing for user Riddell shares an experience he had in a Kubuntu IRC channel, “I had someone boast proudly that

　　he'd managed to convince his college to switch to Kubuntu but was shocked to hear there was no commercial support available as the college would need that reassurance. I hope such users won't be disappointed any more."

　　The support can be purchased from this page. There are 4 options at the moment.

　　1 Hour Support Time for £ 80.00:
　　Purchase 1 or more hour blocks of support time for generic use.

　　1 Day Rate for £ 500.00
　　Purchase 1 or more 8 hour blocks of time for specific work or projects.

　　Hourly Support Per Month fro £ 80.00
　　Priority response, dedicated ticket portal and system monitoring. Carry over unused time for up to 3 months.

　　Hourly Support Per Year
　　Tailored SLA, dedicated ticket portal and full system monitoring. Carry over unused time for up to 6 months.

　　Where does the profit go?
　　Since Emerge Open is a non-profit company the revenues earned from support goes to the Kubuntu Council. So this support will in return make Kubuntu even better. Now there is one more way of supporting Kubuntu - just buy the commercial support.

　　If you are curious what kind of support will be offered. Riddell told me, “There's a nice team of Kubuntu experts ready to provide help on the end of a phone line or e-mail (or google hangout or Skype call or whatever you want) with any problems you have."

　　The support, unlike many other commercial offerings is not limited to the enterprise users. The low tier of pricing also allows home users to get needed support. When I asked if there is specific target audience for this offering Riddell said, “It'll be of interest to all users, home users who can't find the help they expect through community channels, small businesses who have more important things to worry about than which IRC channel is best to ask for help in and large rollouts who needs expertise from those who know Kubuntu best."

　　The support is provided from an England based office which has over half a dozen people who already offer support for a range of products.

　　Ubuntu's parent company Canonical is not involved with this support offering as the company dropped commercial support for Kubuntu last year. Riddell told me that they had to sign an agreement with Canonical to license the Kubuntu trademark to Emerge One for this support offering.

　　So if you are looking for deploying KDE + Ubuntu in your set-up you can now get commercial support. The best part, as I stated above is that the profit goes to the Kubuntu Council so by purchasing support you are directly supporting Kubuntu.