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Posts in 2008 March 31
Leaked Release Announcement Describes Ubuntu Jabbering Jackass
I recently received a curious e-mail from Canonical. I believe this e-mail was not intended for me, but it provides a fascinating look at the future of Ubuntu, and I would like to share it with you.
Below is the e-mail:
With Intrepid Ibex now past feature-freeze it’s time to start to plan
features that are being lined up for inclusion after Ubuntu 8.10 is released in October. And so I’d like to introduce you to Jabbering Jackass, the release which is planned for April 2009, and which is likely to have the version number 9.04.With Jabbering Jackass, we will be working on creating a stubborn … I mean stable … user experience. At this stage in the process, design work is preliminary, but some parts of the plan have been worked out.
For example, we already have a desktop background* for Jackass:
(Click on the picture for a closer look at the folders.)
In addition, Jackass will feature a new Ubuntu log-in sound. The leading candidate right now is this*: WAV | FLAC | Web (Not Recomended). However this is still preliminary, as some people thought it was too annoying, especially since it loops forever.
Finally, Jackass will introduce a feature never before seen in any operating system, a cuddly cartoon donkey, something like the Microsoft Office Assistant, that will help you get work done. For example, if you make a mistake, the cuddly donkey will pop onto the screen and bellow, “You jackass!”
I believe this will be a very useful (Shutup, jackass. I really did mean to type useful.) feature that will change forever how we interact with the operating system.
Please keep this e-mail confidential until April 1 when the formal announcement will be made.
–Mark
For more information on this, see here.
Note: I think Ubuntu is one of the best if not the best Linux distro out there. I use it myself and in no way am I trying to say it is bad or imply anything bad about it.
* – Credit for the desktop background image goes to Orin Optiglo. The image is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic.
* – Credit for the donkey sound goes to Acclivity. The sound is licensed under Creative Commons Sampling Plus 1.0.
Adobe Joins the Linux Foundation: What does it mean?
Recently Adobe announced that it is joining the Linux Foundation, according to Fox Business. The Linux Foundation is “a nonprofit consortium dedicated to fostering the growth of Linux,” according to their website. When things like this happen, it is hard to tell if it is just a press release or if Adobe really intends to pay more attention to Linux, but we can hope they really do care about Linux.
Assuming this announcement is more than a press release, it could mean a number of things. For one thing, it could likely lead to a better Flash Player for Linux, which would be very nice. Another, perhaps more significant possibility, is that Adobe will bring their applications like Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver, etc. to Linux. If that happened, it would be a huge deal, because Adobe’s applications are almost all often considered #1 in their category (not that I am a fan, grr… monopoly grr…)
While it may seem crazy to some people (myself included) that Adobe would put all the effort into porting their applications to Linux, there is another way they could do it. In order to make Picasa for Linux, Google took the Windows version and packaged it with a custom version of WINE. With all the attention being put into Adobe applications on WINE already, something similar might work.
Adobe joining the Linux Foundation could just be a press release, but I am hopeful it means more than that for Linux.