Recently, a really, really long discussion took place on Launchpad, Ubuntu's bug-tracking system, about the Ubuntu user interface design team's sudden and controversial decision to move window buttons from the right-hand side to the left. It's been widely reported that Mark Shuttleworth, Ubuntu's "SABDFL" (a South African word which roughly translates in English to "BADASS"), announced in response to numerous complaints that "Ubuntu is not a democracy."

Mr. Shuttleworth also said that "moving everything to the left opens up the space on the right nicely,and I would like to experiment in 10.10 with some innovative options there. It's much easier to do that if we make this change now."

But what "innovative options" might he be referring to?

To find out, we contacted Ubuntu's NADOPR (North American Director of Public Relations), Bea Esser, for clarification. Ms. Esser put us in contact with a member of Ubuntu's design team, Drew A. Gooey-Aubergine, who gave us an exclusive look at what innovative new features Ubuntu users might see on the right-hand side of their windows in future releases.

For example, there might be an implementation of a boss key by means of the face icon in the upper right-hand corner. In this use-case scenario, explained Mr. Gooey-Aubergine, when you clicked the icon your screen would immediately display the following:

"There's nothing that will convince your boss you're working," explained Mr. Gooey-Aubergine, "like the familiar sight of a real operating system like Windows XP."

According to Mr. Gooey-Aubergine, Mark Shuttleworth has been asking all Ubuntu teams to come up with possible ways to increase revenue. "That's a real natural for us, as opposed to, say, those eggheads in the kernel team," said Mr. Gooey-Aubergine. "We've been expecting this request for a long time now."

One possible way would be through a PayPal link.

And there's the tried-and-true Google Ads. "These would only be displayed if there was an active Internet connection," explained Mr. Gooey-Aubergine, "making these double as a sort of Network Monitor."

Finally, Mr. Gooey-Aubergine seemed to be the most excited about the possibility of adding an Ubuntu Menu. "Think of all the things we could do with that!" he exclaimed. "We could be the first Linux distribution bundled with a one-click "Upgrade to Debian" feature! Although," he admitted, "we haven't passed that one by Mark yet." Nor. as it turned out, had he asked Mr. Shuttleworth about the "uninstall" option.

We'll have more reporting on this exciting story as it develops. In the meantime, what would you want to see in an Ubuntu window? Feel free to add your comments!