So here we are, days away from the next Ubuntu release, this one LTS, and there’s something missing from the landscape, in a manner of speaking.

If you remember the Gutsy release, you’ll recall the hubbub that surrounded the Fluxbuntu RC, promised and … somewhat delivered, in part, not quite fulfilled, but not altogether unsatisfactory.

I haven’t heard a peep this time, aside from the standing disclaimer on the Fluxbuntu wiki, or an occasional cryptic note from “my best friend’s sister’s boyfriend’s brother’s girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who’s going with the girl who” heard it on IRC that there would be an 8.10 release.

And to be honest, I don’t know if I’d be interested even if I had heard something. It’s hard for me to get wound up over Fluxbuntu after two quasi-releases and something akin to a home page makeover. I know, I know: It’s tough putting together an entire distro, troubleshooting, debugging, keeping your customers satisfied.

But there’s a huge number of people who are interested (Fluxbox fans are a very vocal group), and probably a comfortable fraction of them are capable of building a Fluxbuntu, or perhaps just willing to try. I still say, if the present crew doesn’t have the time or interest, pass it off to someone who does.

In the mean time I’ll be checking out CrunchBang, which uses a very smooth Openbox desktop and is rolling along quite confidently, and PUD GNU/Linux LXDE edition, which installs the freshest LXDE desktop over an Ubuntu system, and looks to me like a very cool option.

Of course, if you’ve heard otherwise, let me know Fluxbuntu is still alive. I’d like to think it true, but I’m not holding my breath this time.