In a few days Ubuntu 8.10 will be released. For those following Ubuntu news, you already knew about this. But for those that weren’t, now you know.

Some are wondering what some of the new/improved/updated features in 8.10 will be compared to 8.04.

Here’s a short list (not a full list - just some of the newer features I noticed personally):

New network manager and 3G network support

Yes you can do this from the existing Ubuntu release but 8.10 promises to make it a whole lot easier to get connected without typing as much (like the APN password) to authenticate. The 8.10 release says there will be less typing, more connecting.

Guest account

Users of Windows know the Guest account and how it can be really handy to have. Ubuntu 8.10 will have this also.

Tabs in Nautilus

This is something that Nautilus really, really needed. And 8.10 has finally delivered the goods here.

If you have no idea what this means, it means that when you open file browser windows you finally get tabs. Still don’t know what it means? Trust me, you’ll know it when you see it - and it’s good. Makes for far better navigation just getting from folder to folder.

Auto-install drivers now include printers

I think this one is easy enough to understand as to why it would be a notable improvement.

Better Flash support

The existing 8.04 has some pretty darn good Flash support but 8.10 is supposed to be better. Hopefully what this means is more fluidity in Flash video specifically.

What hasn’t changed

For those that were expecting some totally new, totally different Ubuntu, that’s not going to happen. And to be honest, that’s good.

The way in which Ubuntu does releases is some of the smartest I’ve ever seen mainly due to the fact they don’t try to reinvent the wheel each time. Instead they take what they have (which is good) and improve upon it.

This is part of the reason Ubuntu has such a large following. They don’t “shock” users into something new just to score “Ooh Aah” points. Rather all they’re trying to do is make the best possible operating system everyone can use.

Ubuntu may not be perfect (no OS is), but the ideology is spot-on correct.