Hi Folks,

I am delighted to have the pleasure of announcing the Hardy Heron
(Ubuntu 8.04), the next version of Ubuntu that will succeed Gutsy Gibbon
(Ubuntu 7.10, due for release in October 2007). Not only will the Ubuntu
community continue to do what it does best, produce an easy-to-use,
reliable, free software platform, but this release will proudly wear the
badge of Long Term Support (LTS) and be supported with security updates
for five years on the server and three years on the desktop. We look
forward to releasing the Hardy Heron in April 2008.

With the opening of each new release cycle of Ubuntu, we have more and
more opportunity at our fingertips. Not only are our friends in the
upstream world constantly innovating and extending their applications
and software, but the Ubuntu community continues to see incredible
growth in its diverse range of areas such as packaging, development,
documentation, quality assurance, translations, LoCo teams and more.
Each new release gives us all an opportunity to shine, irrespective of
which bricks in the project we are laying, and this is at the heart of
our belief - working together to produce an Operating System that will
empower its users and shape the IT industry, putting free software at
the corner-stone of our direction.

Most people only ever see the end-user view of Ubuntu, running it on
their desktops, servers and mobile devices around the world. For these
users, Ubuntu provides a simple, convenient means to do what they want
to do easily, effectively and without unnecessary complexity. For many
of us though, we want to open up the hood and understand how the system
works and how to extend and grow it. Thousands of us get out of bed
every day, united behind Ubuntu, ready to make a difference, working
together to make our vision happen.

Importantly, our ethos of collaboration and freedom extends to the
development process as well as the end product. As such, the Ubuntu
development process is a very open, transparent one, and anyone is
welcome to get involved. It works like this:

 - Everyone is welcome to think of and develop ideas for features that
could be present in the Hardy Heron release. These ideas are written as
specifications (detailed documents outlining how the idea would work and
be implemented). You are welcome to add your specifications to
https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu.

 - In October 2007, we will hold the Ubuntu Developer Summit in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and generate a schedule of sessions to
discuss these specifications. The sessions provide a means for
interested parties to help scope out the proposed feature and determine
methods and plans to implement it. The Ubuntu Developer Summit is a
semi-virtual event in which those who cannot attend can dial in with
VoIP and use IRC and collaborative editing with Gobby to take part in
the summit.

Everyone is welcome to participate, everyone is welcome to get involved,
and everyone is welcome to help shape the form of the Hardy Heron. Let's
work together to shake things up, make things happen and make the most
compelling Ubuntu release yet. Start your engines...

	Jono

-- 
Jono Bacon
Ubuntu Community Manager
jono(at)ubuntu(dot)com
www.ubuntu.com / www.jonobacon.org