The community edition is the freely-available version of the Vyatta platform. The company also offers subscription versions of the software in a model somewhat similar to the Red Hat model of Linux distribution.

The company says the biggest improvements in the new edition include a major increase in scalability, as well as extended application support for its router, firewall and VPN feature set. Vyatta says VC4 achieves a price/performance advantage of ten times versus proprietary network solutions.

Price has been one of the major selling points so far for Vyatta, which positions itself as the open-source alternative to products from companies like Cisco and Juniper. VC4, says the company, incorporates new routing technology that improves performance and takes advantage of improving of open-source components and advances in the x86 ecosystem.

Scalability seems to be one of the major focuses of the material promoting the new version. VC4 scales from DSL to 10 Gigabit Ethernet environments.

The company is spreading its attention in both directions, incorporating enhanced features for both smaller networks and larger enterprises into the functioning of the operating system.

"Vyatta is delivering the new network operating system - a single image that scales across the network, and includes a range of applications required in the real world," says Vyatta CEO Kelly Herrell, in the press release. "Customers can now deploy and manage a single network OS, instead of juggling dozens of incompatible versions chasing after different product requirements. Along with a 10X price/performance advantage, the management advantages bring a radically better TCO to customers who embrace open networking. We're thrilled with Vyatta's adoption and community development to date, and are looking forward to delivering more advancements at a modern pace of innovation."

Vyatta last updated its community edition with version 3 back in November of 2007.