Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical and its popular Linux distribution Ubuntu, announced in his blog that they’ll be working on some new features behind closed doors for the next release.
Shuttleworth wrote, “”Mapping out the road to 13.04, there are a few items with high ‘tada!’ value that would be great candidates for folk who want to work on something that will get attention when unveiled. While we won’t talk about them until we think they are ready to celebrate, we’re happy to engage with contributing community members that have established credibility (membership, or close to it) in Ubuntu, who want to be part of the action.”
This news came immediately after the release of Ubuntu 12.10.. Shuttleworth knows, “The skunkworks approach has its detractors. We’ve tried it both ways, and in the end, figured out that critics will be critics whether you discuss an idea with them in advance or not. Working on something in a way that lets you refine it till it feels ready to go has advantages: you can take time to craft something, you can be judged when you’re ready, you get a lot more punch when you tell your story, and you get your name in lights (though not every headline is one you necessarily want. ;-)”
Slideshow: Say hello to Ubuntu 12.10 Linux
Some have already suggested that Shuttleworth is doing this because Ubuntu’s switch to its Unity interface has proven unpopular. That doesn’t seem likely to me.