Ubuntu, deciding that 8.10 would run on all types of computers, which includes subnotebooks without CD/DVD drives, has taken on a project to convert CD ISO images into USB-compatible images that will provide a full Live CD desktop right from the USB.
Strangely, nobody has heard anything of this project since the blueprint got accepted, and everybody assumed it was dead, probably proposed by a developer who dreams of possibilities, but is too lazy to work for that dream.
But a few days ago, intrepid-changes made an announcement with a package named usb-creator, version 0.1, commented "initial release." Weird it appears so suddenly a week after Intrepid's feature freeze.
However, a member of Ubuntu Forums noticed that there was another similar project, and was curious if that project was the one in Intrepid. Nobody knew the answer, until another member posted an IRC chat he had had with an Ubuntu developer.
The explanation is here. No, the poster says, they are not the same projects, and with good reason too. The Ubuntu team is aware of that application already, but they have found it more conveniant, more easy, and more quick to just start from scratch rather than modify the already-built code to meet Ubuntu's requirements.
Then, some might say, why doesn't Ubuntu just use Fedora's already-built and more mature program that does the same thing? The answer again lies in the above link. Fedora's LiveUSB application is written in PyQT, and Ubuntu wants a pure breed, not mixed front-ends and back-ends that are different.
The initial release, version 0.1, was made public to testers of Intrepid roughly three days ago, but we have yet to hear of how fully it does its job.
UPDATE: Apparently this project is fully alive and is receiving a great amount of attention from developers. You could see that, by noticing at the top of this post, I have added more links from announcements by intrepid-changes. Refer to those if you're wanting to get technical and want to see all changes.
UPDATE 2: Added two more intrepid-changes links. (The last two.)
UPDATE 3: Screenshot.
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