I was just reading the article about the release of Ubuntu Linux 8.04 over on Arstechnica…

The Heron has landed: Ubuntu 8.04 officially released

…and this comment caught my eye: The next major version is Ubuntu 8.10, which is codenamed Intrepid Ibex and is scheduled for release in October. During the Intrepid Ibex development cycle, the focus will be on mobile computing and desktop scalability.

I’ve installed a bunch of different Linux distros and distro versions on notebooks over the years for testing: Fedora, Ubuntu, Puppy Linux, etc. Everyone of them has been flawed from a mobile notebook point of view. Battery management was non-existent, WiFi support was awful, LCD displays were acceptable at best. I assume Asus’ custom Linux for their Eee PC handles these issues well. And OLPC’s Sugar OS (based on Fedora) seems ok too. But, these were tailored for their hardware. I’ll give Ubuntu 8.04 a spin on a notebook for testing. But, I’m not expecting much.