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One of the goals put forth for Ubuntu's Jaunty Jackalope at the last Developer Summit, the development of a unified, hands-off notification display, has finally made an appearance in the testing release, according to Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth.

The new notification display is designed to behave similarly regardless of desktop environment, and deliver notifications in an non-intrusive manner. An overview of what Shuttleworth calls attention-management guidelines is outlined on the Ubuntu wiki, describing how to design notifications that get the user's attention, inform, and then effortlessly get out of the way.

The development team working in this area is aware of at least 35 applications that need extra attention to work well with the new system, and its current focus is to address these issues and identify other applications with similar quirks.

Earlier today, Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth announced the latest addition to the Ubuntu development ecosystem: the Karmic Koala. This release (also referred to by its scientific classification, Ubuntu 9.10) will be unleashed six months after Ubuntu 9.04 (the Jaunty Jackalope) debuts in April.

Shuttleworth hints creatively at some goals for the Karmic release, and manages to make servers, desktops, and netbooks seem as though they're only a link or two away from koalas on the evolutional chain. The server edition will have a special focus on cloud computing, and will include Amazon EC2 tools as well as (you guessed it) Eucalpytus for creating custom, localized cloud configurations. Karmic Koala's server edition will focus on reducing energy consumption.

Desktop Koalas have some internal genetic alterations -- such as flicker free X initialization (in the spirit of Fedora 10) and boot speeds that suggest jungle cat over arboreal marsupial. Shuttleworth also hints at how different this desktop will look. Will the Karmic Koala break from the traditional Ubuntu brown?

How would you like to get involved in engineering the Koala?

Are you interested in open source software? Do you use Ubuntu at all? Will you be passing through the Los Angeles area later today or tomorrow? Think you'll be spending any time over the next two days near a computer with an internet connection? Are your weekend plans peppered with a few small gaps (or wide open expanses) of free time?

Yes? I've got some good news, then. This weekend is shaping up to be a lively one for open source enthusiasts, whether they're in sunny southern California or Tokyo, Japan.

For those in the vicinity of Southern California, SCaLE (the SoCal Linux Expo) is taking place this weekend. Lisa spoke with SCaLE organizer Gareth Greenaway a while back about how the event was shaping up, and the event schedule is packed with talks, tutorials and demonstrations for open source fans of any skill level.

If you'll notice, SCaLE is hosting a number of sessions for the Ubuntu Global Bug Jam. Not in California? Not to worry. The weekend-long Bug Jam is global in the truest sense -- and if you're unable to attend a real world meeting, the #ubuntu-bugs IRC channel can get you in on the action.

On Monday, Freescale Semiconductor announced its further plans to forge ahead into the netbook market. Freescale, a major manufacturer of embedded semiconductors, entered the netbook arena in January with its i.MX515 chip and a comprehensive netbook reference design featuring the new-to-ARM Ubuntu Linux platform.

Ubuntu isn't the only open source option for Freescale, however. The company has announced it will also support the Android platform, Xandros Linux, and HyperSpace, an instant-on Linux-based environment.

How to make Thunderbird more social. Postbox is an email client and address book app for OS X and Windows built on Mozilla Thunderbird code.

Snakebite network to allow open source developers to test projects on multiple platforms. It's a centralized server farm.

How Mozilla can save Windows Mobile. Its Fennec browser could result in? extensibility and durability on Microsoft's end.

Red Hat makes it easy to lose proprietary middleware for JBoss. The company has started offering migration tools to enable enterprises to go to JBoss.

Android moving to mobile Internet tablets, media players. A new branch--Cupcake--makes it possible. Also, Telenav GPS comes to the Android G1.

Which is the best netbook OS? Here is Ubuntu vs. XP vs. Windows 7. Also, which sites are mobile-friendly for small screens?

Foxmarks syncs bookmarks in Safari, Internet Explorer. The Foxmarks browser synchronization platform now works with proprietary browsers. It's always been a hit with mobile users.

Chrome getting faster JavaScript. Chrome developers have swapped a built-in third-party software package in favor of their own as part of a browser speedup.

Google just added 1.5 million books to your phone. Google has 1.5 million public domain titles scanned and digitized in a small-screen format.

Marten Mickos, Sun's SVP of databases, to leave in a reorg. This follows the resignation of MySQL co-founder Monty Widenius, and a big quarter for MySQL.

Does Microsoft subvert the virtualization space to harm Red Hat? BoycottNovell looks into allegedly suspicious partnerships and revenue sharing.

Facebook joins OpenID. Facebook has joined the board of the OpenID Foundation and will host an OpenID Design Summit.

Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, and the analysts at RedMonk presented the results of a recent survey conducted on Ubuntu's use in server deployments. Nearly 7,000 people (representing the same number of organizations) participated in the survey, which was promoted on Ubuntu's web site and several Linux server-specific forums.

Canonical's marketing head, Gerry Carr, says that the survey is essential reading for any organization using (or considering using) Ubuntu's Server Edition. After taking a closer look at the survey, I'd recommend it to anyone interested in current server technologies, or where the server market is headed -- even if Ubuntu Server isn't part of the equation.

Can open source save the mobile market? Despite the hype, the iPhone, Android, Blackberry e-mail and all the rest, data still represents less than 5% of the market.

Canonical survey shows Ubuntu Server as mission-critical enterprise platform. Ubuntu is being used in most common workloads, such as on Web, file, database and mail servers.

FlyCast hits the Android. T-Mobile G1 Android phone owners have no shortage of streaming audio apps to try, and the announcement that FlyCast comes to the G1 adds one more.

E-tailer dumps Windows for Red Hat. UK-based online lingerie retailer figleaves.com has turned away from Microsoft and to virtualisation and open source.

Linux Defenders organizes to fight patent trolls. The organization is moving forward, and we reported on it here.