Ok, what is lined up for 9.10? (Note, this list is not direct confirmation)
EXT-4 installed by default. EXT-4 is the improved journaling file-system taken out of beta several months ago, last Christmas in fact. It was going to be included in 9.04 but there were concerns over stability.
Rhythmbox replaced with Banshee. Rhythmbox in 8.10 was always quite annoying, the ’smart playlist’ especially. (Hardly smart, in my opinion, but then I’ve never liked such systems) It’s actually gone sane in 9.04. Banshee and Rhythmbox have many of the same features, Last.FM intergration, radio….almost the exact same, save for the fact that Banshee can scan for media and Rhythmbox cant. Nor can Rhythmbox scan for cover art. Both are just as well intergreated into the GNOME enviroment as to little as makes no diffrence.
Ubuntu AppCenter Add/Remove, Synaptic, GDebi and Update manager incoroperated into Ubuntu AppCenter (possibly for 9.10) with the look of add/remove, the range of Synaptic, the abilty to install local packages like GDebi and the Update manager being intergrated. There has been word it’ll use PackageKit for a backend, at least in some aspects.
Encrypted Home Directory offered during install As far as I know, Home directory encryption was only offered on the alternate CD until now.
10 Boot Time.
Firefox 3.5
Enhancements for NotifyOSD
Tighter WINE Intergration