The company also staked its claim to the leadership of the Linux server market. HP said it has sold 1.5 million Linux servers worth US$6.2 billion in the past eight years, over 50 percent more than its nearest competitor.

Debian is a popular version of Linux that, unlike Red Hat or SUSE by Novell Inc., is not backed or supported by a for-profit vendor. That has hindered its adoption by enterprises.

HP will support Debian on its ProLiant and BladeSystem servers, complementing support it provides worldwide for Red Hat or SUSE Linux, as well as Miracle, Red Flag and Haan among Asian customers.

According to Geoffrey Wade, worldwide Linux marketing manager at HP, the company's engineers have contributed to the Debian open-source project for a decade. HP has also been supporting Debian for customers in specific niches, such as telecommunications and high-performance technical computing, during the past three years.

Monday's announcement is an extension of that support.