It isn't too soon to anticipate the next major release of Ubuntu is it? I hope not. Ubuntu 10.04 has a few surprises up its virtual sleeve in store for you. I can't tell you everything that's in store but you'll certainly have fun discovering some of them through this blog and my other writing venues as I obtain permission to print them. I did have the pleasure of speaking directly to one of the Ubuntu developers on Friday and will tell you a bit of what he told me about this exciting new release.

Ubuntu 10.04, aka Lucid Lynx, is an LTS (Long Term Support) release. This means that this version of Ubuntu will be supported for five years after its release. The last LTS was Ubuntu 8.04.

Ubuntu produces a new LTS release every two years.

For those of you who don't know, Ubuntu Linux was the brainchild and is the financial support burden for billionaire, Mark Shuttleworth. Canonical is the official commercial support company for the Ubuntu Linux distribution.

In this new release, Ubuntu will be even more enterprise focused with a continuation and enhancement of some new features that first appeared in earlier releases. Some of the new key features involve power management and virtualization in the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud version of Ubuntu Server. Some Ubuntu developers refer to Lucid Lynx as a "green" release due to these power management enhancements.

The developer promised me that careful Ubuntu watchers, like me, won't be disappointed by this release.