A few days have passed since the big exciting release of the Karmic Koala. Reviews are mixed with people claiming it’s the greatest Ubuntu release of all time, and others saying it’s an utter disappointment. That’s to be expected, of course. People focus on different things and some people will find themselves running a trouble free release. Others will notice weird video problems, flickering screens, and application crashes. If you really must ask, my experience is mixed. All in all, I am feeling rather positive about where things are going.

An other issue that clouds my judgement somewhat is that I usually start running a new release in the late Alpha stages. I need to know where things are going and what people are working on. In fact, that’s usually where I get most excited; thinking about all the cool stuff that’s coming out. Consequently, I’m likely to load up the third or fourth alpha of the upcoming Languid Lemur, 10.04.

Throughout this, I’m always happy (and a little impressed) to note that the people directly involved in putting out a distribution like this are able to sit back, look at their work with a critical eye, and lay down the groundwork that will improve and build on what they’ve only just released. That’s why I was excited to hear about Project Timelord on the Kubuntu site. Inspired by Doctor Who, the mysterious Time Lord who travels in his TARDIS, righting wrongs (strangely enough, by getting into trouble), the team is looking to improve Kubuntu on a few key fronts. These include translation and localization, bug tracking and squashing, quality management, Kubuntu specific tool development and integration, and my personal favorite, marketing.

Read the whole story on the Ubuntu User Website.