OStatic

Over at the Lynx blog, Dougie Richardson cast his vote for the best comment made during the course of Ubuntu's Open Week. While his choice might be completely subjective, there is no denying that Mark Shuttleworth's response when asked whether WINE (in its own right, or as a general synonym for Windows compatibility) or native Linux ports were more important to Ubuntu's success was thought provoking.

The question (and answer) invite all sorts of tangential queries. What should any desktop computer be expected, by default, to deliver? If equivalent applications on different platforms have identical features and functionality, and content produced by one application can be opened and modified on the other, will user interfaces and familiarity matter less -- or more? If Microsoft made every last line of its code available to peruse and modify right now -- how would Windows change? How would Linux change? If you need a Philips head screwdriver, is it possible to squeak by with an approximately sized flat head type?

April is fast approaching, and that can mean only one thing -- the jackalopes have returned from wherever it is that jackalopes overwinter, and they're making their way to mirrors and torrents near you. The alpha stage of the Jaunty Jackalope (Ubuntu 9.04) release is now behind us, and the first beta version was sighted on mirrors worldwide just moments ago.

While the world won't see the official Jackalope release until April 23rd, the Ubuntu team invites any interested in Jackalope (bug) hunting to download the beta version and join the party.

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 an Ubuntu developer/Launchpad member who had fate conspire against you, keeping you from the the Ubuntu Developer Summit this week at the clandestine Google Crittenden Campus in Mountain View?

It's not quite the same, but Mike Basinger has the details on how to be there without actually attending. For Launchpad registered developers, the UDS schedule page has links to live streams (video and audio) for the talks and presentations, as well as instructions on how to use VOIP to participate.

Not registered with Launchpad? More of an interested onlooker than a developer? The Jaunty Jackalope UDS attendees have rigged a number of virtual postcards for the event featuring more than the local weather and obligatory wish you were here.