OStatic

Day four of Ubuntu Open Week was packed with tons of terrific information about various aspects of the Ubuntu project, including getting the popular Linux distribution running on an Eee PC, Packaging in Python, and what the future of the desktop looks like.

It was no surprise that one of the biggest draws of the day was the Q & A session with Ubuntu's founder Mark Shuttleworth. He had plenty to say about the next phase of the project and what users can expect to see in future versions of the distro.

Shuttleworth fielded questions for an hour in the designated IRC channel that served as the meeting room. One of the first points he made was that although it's a community-oriented platform, Ubuntu is also commercially viable. "If we can succeed in that, it will mean that all of our members can start to treat ubuntu both as a passion and as a source of commercial opportunity."

Shuttleworth acknowledged that it's a "significant challenge" but that the project has excellent leadership, a strong community, and dedicated teams of people working tirelessly on various aspects of Ubuntu. "Now, can we keep those folks passionate and engaged while ubuntu becomes a platform that businesses depend on? So, that's what I see as the real next phase of Ubuntu."

Later in the day, Bryce Harrington walked session-goers through the inner workings of Ubuntu's grahical environment, X Windows system. He says that even though X is a crucial part of the user experience, it's probably also the most overlooked. Harrington explained to the group how to improve X's quality by helping code features or squish bugs.

Ubuntu Desktop Team member Ted Gould gave a great presentation on what his team is all about, and explained a bit about the Desktop as well. Gould says that future version of the desktop will focus on supporting very small and very large displays, and also enhancing its visual impact.

"One of the things that I think it is interesting to see about the Ubuntu Desktop is that it is really an instance of the GNOME desktop," he said. "But, yet has it's own identity, and that difference is something that we find very important. That doesn't mean that we don't like GNOME, but it means that we don't have to be a straight up copy of GNOME either."

Ubuntu Open Week gets underway again at 1500 UTC tomorrow with in-depth looks at Wubi, Ubuntu documentation, and ways for the community to get involved in the project.

• ubuntu open week
• X
• mark shuttleworth