Planning for Ubuntu 8.10ish - The Intrepid Ibex

With Hardy now past feature-freeze it's time to start to plan
features that are being lined up for inclusion after Ubuntu 8.04 LTS
is released in April.

And so I'd like to introduce you to the Intrepid Ibex, the release
which is planned for October 2008, and which is likely to have the
version number 8.10.

During the 8.10 cycle we will be venturing into interesting new
territory, and we'll need the rugged adventurousness of a mountain
goat to navigate tricky terrain. Our desktop offering will once
again be a focal point as we re-engineer the user interaction model
so that Ubuntu works as well on a high-end workstation as it does on
a feisty little subnotebook. We'll also be reaching new peaks of
performance - aiming to make the mobile desktop as productive as
possible.

A particular focus for us will be pervasive internet access, the
ability to tap into bandwidth whenever and wherever you happen to
be. No longer will you need to be a tethered, domesticated animal -
you'll be able to roam (and goats do roam!) the wild lands and
access the web through a variety of wireless technologies. We want
you to be able to move from the office, to the train, and home,
staying connected all the way.

The Intrepid Ibex will take shape at our next Ubuntu Developer
Summit, an open event to which members of the Ubuntu community,
upstream communities, corporate developers and other distributions
are all invited. That summit takes place in beautiful Prague, in the
Czech Republic from 19th - 23rd May 2008. Together we will draw up
detailed blueprints for Ubuntu 8.10. Please join us there to help
define the Intrepid Ibex:

   https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UDS-Intrepid

Ubuntu 8.10 will be our ninth release, and the fourth anniversary of
the first release - 4.10. In those four years, Ubuntu has grown as a
project, an ethos and a community. The Ubuntu community have worked
to set the benchmark for open, inclusive, and collaborative
development processes. We have open specifications, open governance
structures and a willingness to empower everyone to make their
unique contribution to the success of the project.

This has created an extraordinary diversity in participation; a
depth of talent including packagers, programmers, translators,
writers, testers, advocates, technical support, artists and many
others. Those contributions come as much from the corporate world -
Canonical and other companies that have embraced Ubuntu as a core of
their offering - as from a huge number of individual professionals.
It is this combination of expertise and perspectives that makes it
such a pleasure for me to be part of this project, and I thank all
of you for your continued passion, participation, and energy.

Hardy is our best development cycle yet, delivering on our promise
of reliability and stability for the Heron. We must stay focused on
that goal. To the extent that you have a brilliant idea for the
future, you now have a peg to hang it on - the Intrepid Ibex. When
the Hardy Heron has taken flight we will engage fully with the Ibex.
Give it horns!

Mark