Introducing the Jaunty Jackalope

As we approach the launch of Ubuntu 8.10, it's time to create space for
future plans, and so I'm writing to introduce you to The Jaunty Jackalope.

Jaunty, the code name for what will most likely become Ubuntu 9.04, will
be the focus of our efforts from November through to April next year. We
will be gathering forces in Mountain View on 8th - 12th December to
survey the upstream landscape and finalize Jaunty plans, enjoying the
excellent hospitality of Google and Silicon Valley's abundance of talent
and innovation. The Ubuntu Developer Summit is the social and strategic
highlight of each release cycle and it would be a great pleasure to
welcome you there. Jono Bacon has written up a
http://www.jonobacon.org/?p=1278 guide to sponsorship for those who
would have a substantial amount to offer at the Summit.

The Warrior Rabbit is our talisman as we move into a year where we can
reasonably expect Ubuntu to ship on several million devices, to
consumers who can reasonably expect the software experience to be
comparable to those of the traditional big OSV's - Microsoft and Apple.
The bar is set very high, and we have been given the opportunity to leap
over it. It's a once-in-a-lifetime chance to shine, and we want to make
sure that the very best thinking across the whole open source ecosystem
is reflected in Ubuntu, because many people will judge free software as
a whole by what we do.

There are some specific goals that we need to meet in Jaunty. One of
them is boot time. We want Ubuntu to boot as fast as possible - both in
the standard case, and especially when it is being tailored to a
specific device. The Jackalope is known for being so fast that it's
extremely hard to catch, and breeds only when lightning flashes. Let's