Ubuntu 9.10 Goals And Disappointments

There is plenty of stuff to get excited about in the comming release of Ubuntu, Karmic Koala. What has been confirmed is:

- About 10s boot!
- Gnome-shell in universe soon so people can bang on it
- Android apps running on ubuntu netbook remix
- Firefox 3.5 will be the default browser
- Gwibber by default if it's ready (woo!)
- EXT4 by default for new installs; dist-upgrade handling ext3 (whether to migrate to ext4- unlikely)
- Kernel 2.6.31
- Banshee might replace Rhythmbox if related bugs are fixed in time (if not, then surely in Karmic+1)
- Encrypted home directory offered to all users
- Ubuntu One will have install options in ubiquity
- Better Wine integration
- Further enhancements for the new notification system

Sadly, there's also a few disappointments:

- No Plymouth (because of the 10s boot goal)
- No Facebrowser (listed under Additional Development in the Gobby document)
- No completely new theme (theming improvements though)

I have to stress that, though decisions have been made, nothing is definitive yet. There is still a lot of topics which haven't published any goals, like the video editor session which is considering PiTiVi as a candidate.
Next week there will of course be more facts and less guessing when UDS is over.