Maverick Meerkat A Perfect 10?

Ubuntu's Lucid Lynx (10.04) isn't out yet but Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu and Canonical, and his team look toward the October 2010 (10.10) release they're calling Maverick Meerkat. On his personal blog this morning, Mark wrote, "It’s time to put our heads together to envision 'the perfect 10'." Mark, himself, has a new vision for the upcoming release already knowing that 10.04 is almost "in the can." His new vision is one of lightness-lightness in footprint, in deployment and in support requirements. A grand vision but can he do it?

You already know that I think Ubuntu is the "Ultimate Distribution" but how much better can Ubuntu be?

Mark believes quite a bit better.

"We’ll embrace the web, aiming for the lightest, fastest web experience on any platform. The fastest boot, the fastest network connect, the fastest browser. Our goal is to ensure that UNE is far and away the best desktop OS for a netbook, both for consumers and power users."

I'm glad that Mark wants to continue to develop the desktop while others, namely Novell and Red Hat, have all but abandoned the idea. Oh, wait, aren't those two companies the ones that signed major agreements with Microsoft? Yeah, I think they are. And neither wants to put any real development into a desktop system. It's probably just me. I digress.
But just in case you've forgotten, read about Novell's and Red Hat's desktop disses.

Mark's views on that front:

"It’s not all about work. We don’t just want to be connected to the internet, we want to be connected to each other. Social from the Start is our initiative to make the desktop a collaborative, social place. For the past five years, we’ve all been shifting more and more data into the web, to a series of accounts and networks elsewhere. Now it’s time to start to bring those social networks back into our everyday computing environment. Our addressbooks and contact lists need to be synchronized and shared, so that we have the latest information everywhere – from mobile phones to web accounts."

and,

"This is a time of change, and we’re not afraid to surprise people with a bold move if the opportunity for dramatic improvement presents itself. We want to put Ubuntu and free software on every single consumer PC that ships from a major manufacturer, the ultimate maverick move."

I'm glad that someone like Mark Shuttleworth is fighting the good fight, shunning the other distribution's lack of interest in the Desktop, not making "deals" with Microsoft and heading in his own direction.

It is his visionary sight that propels Ubuntu. People like Mark make the most differences in this technology-based world of ours.

Ubuntu, the ultimate Linux distribution? You bet it is. And now you know why.

I hope Mark never loses that Maverick spirit and always maintains his vision for something better.

Microsoft, your days of Desktop dominance might now have an end.

What do you think of Mark's visions? Do you think it's possible to take away Microsoft's desktop dominance and "put Ubuntu and free software on every single consumer PC that ships from a major manufacturer?"

[atlas' crick]

Lucid, to me at least, will gauge if Ubuntu is truly moving in that direction rather than simply being pointed in that direction. Each long-term release's functionality and ease of use tend to make or break that possibility, at least until the next LTR. A lot has happened since 8.04, but is it enough?

The average Joe just wants it to work. Most "blue-screens" on windows come from people who fiddle with, install and click pretty much everything that splashes on the screen. Otherwise, it tends to just work. We "fiddlers" like the illusion of control, but want it to be easy. Not part of the linux community culture, to be sure. We love complaining about windows, but don't want the work involved in using linux. We want steak, but don't want to raise cows. (ie. "sudo" to high heaven and hours spent researching problems in the forums)

If lucid can give us that, oh yeah, people will come...people will most certainly come.

Glad to see the focus is on being the best. 9.10 has been a good release with a few exceptions. One being an update that came down breaking three machines I support. Ubuntu must be stable.
"Our addressbooks and contact lists need to be synchronized and shared, so that we have the latest information everywhere – from mobile phones to web accounts." I have wanted this feature in GNU/Linux for years. Seems like a no brainer all device have all the same info on them. The lack of this is what has held me back from a complete switch to GNU/Linux.

[Eruaran]

What a pity that you all hang on Mark Shuttleworth's words like Apple's fanboys do with Steve Jobs.

Mark is just echoing the work that others have already started and been working on in the community for some time. It takes time to develop the frameworks and do things properly. But its Mark who is the "innovator"? This kind of thing is very disappointing. If you want a prime example of a social semantic platform that has embraced the web, and is offering more and more social features, synch and integration, you need look no further than the work the KDE community has been doing.

[sdemchenko]

I think you are wrong that Red Hat signed any major agreements with Microsoft: (a) Red Hat has not signed the infamous patent agreement, (b) a virtualization interoperability agreement is hardly a major one.

[alas]

ok shinke you

[SilverWav]

The crack about Red Hat is out of line man.
I use Ubuntu and like it but Red Hat are the good guys do a lot of great work.