The first public release of Ubuntu MID (Mobile Internet Devices) Edition 8.04 was announcesd last week by Canonical. Entitled as a developer's release, this version is based on the Ubuntu 8.04 Desktop Edition and it is a project developed by the hard working team behind the Ubuntu Mobile & Embedded community and sponsored by Canonical in collaboration with the Intel Moblin community. The goal of Ubuntu MID is to take full advantage of the Mobile Internet Devices' "heart", the Intel Atom Processor!

Ubuntu MID 8.04 comes packed with free applications for everyone, from an extremely useful web browser, with zoom abilities for a better Internet surfing experience and powered by the Gecko engine (the one behind the powerful Mozilla Firefox), to an indispensable e-mail client, address book software, document reading, calendar, audio and video player. "In some cases we took some applications and modified them to fit better on MID screens and to be finger friendly for touch screens. In others we have included Moblin technologies," said the Ubuntu MID team in the release announcement.

Ubuntu MID 8.04 is offered for download in two installable images, one for the McCaslin platform (used by the Samsung Q1U device) and another one for the Menlow platform, the one that uses the powerful Intel Atom Processor, and one KVM image for those who just want to test it. "It should be noted that this is not for direct install on any OEM device. While it can be adapted for Menlow platforms, this requires substantial modifications and is not recommended for end users. If you flash this to an OEM device it's likely it would not boot."

Starting with the 8.10 release, Ubuntu MID will follow the usual six-month development cycle!

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Download Ubuntu MID 8.04 right now from Softpedia.