Leigh Dyer has come up with a list of improvements he'd like to see by the time 8.10 ships.
With Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron" now in feature-freeze in preparation for its April release, the Ubuntu developers have started planning for Ubuntu 8.10 "Intrepid Ibex", which is due this October. Ubuntu is my distribution of choice, but it's definitely not perfect, so I've come up with a list of improvements I'd like to see by the time 8.10 ships.
Built-in 3G networking. Linux actually works quite well with 3G networks, since Bluetooth mobile phones, and most USB modems, appear as generic serial devices that work with the standard Linux PPP tools. The PPP stack needs to be configured though, and while there are plenty of examples online, it's still more complex than it needs to be. A GUI tool that prompts the user for the required details and then sets up the needed configuration files would save a lot of hassle for a lot of users.
A customised Eee PC installer. The Eee is selling like hotcakes, and introducing a lot of users to Linux, but I'm sure a few of the mini-laptops will end up running XP once those users hit the limitations of the standard OS. To keep those users running Linux, we need an Eee-customised Ubuntu system that's a breeze to install. Ideally, we'd see a utility for Windows that can take a standard 8.10 CD and install a customised insatller to a USB drive, for booting on the Eee. A community project called "eeeXubuntu" is already working toward this, but it needs a Linux system to set up the USB drive, which might be too high a bar for some potential users.
Proper dual-monitor support. X.Org 7.3 has pretty solid support for monitor hotplugging, at least on Intel hardware, but on current Ubuntu systems this support still requires some manual configuration. I'd love to see Ubuntu's display configuration tool improved to make this dead simple, both for the initial setup, and for on-the-fly reconfiguration as you add and remove diplays. Even if ATI and NVIDIA don't come to the party, there are so many laptops out there with Intel video that it'd be well worth doing.
Of course, there are other features I'd like to see, such as better suspend/hibernate support and broader wireless networking compatibility, but there's only so much that developers can do without hardware vendor support. Nothing here requires vendor support through -- all that's needed is time and effort.
Leigh is a software developer and systems administrator with more than 10 years Linux and Windows experience. He's been using Ubuntu since before its official announcement in 2004.