Not Ubuntu....

Confirmed to be a generic bug, caused by the laptop BIOS or other settings, rather than Ubuntu's "fault". See:

http://ubuntudemon.wordpress.com/2007/10/30/ubuntu-is-not-causing-aggressive-power-management/

Not Ubuntu's fault, but needs fixing anyway

As per the Leopard BSOD problem. Is it the OS manufacturer's fault? No, it isn't.

Should they fix it anyway? Yes - just like Microsoft has to work round shitty hardware and software.

Just like all the Unixes already do with duff hard disk controllers and suchlike. it's a universal problem, and the OS manufacturer needs to resolve it.

Not so simple

While one might make the case 'its not Ubuntu's' fault, or I should say 'Linux' and Other operating systems fault, the OS installed plays a part.

Its been raised as a bug since 2005. And if you are heading up Ubuntu, a linux for the masses, you can't logically expert end users to start getting hands dirty fixing something that is handled by the OS.

And power management IS handled by the OS. If something is going badly wrong, the OS has to handle it. That is its job.

Other OS's have handled it, because we know Windows tends to work around the issue. What people need to think is along these lines:-

If people were paying for this, or if we had partners (which in terms of Dell, Ubuntu now has), or if we simply want to match the deeds to the aspiriration of being a User OS, then we have to sort it.

If the answer is to hide behind comments like 'The user can fix it themself.', or 'Its free, we offer no warranty', or 'Its someone else's fault', these are all passing the buck. Sorry, but they are.

It needs fixing, its needed fixing since 2005, and the time and excuses are running out. No vendor is going to want Ubuntu OR other OSS software if the software actually leads to a senario where customers are returning product. It does not matter who's fault it is, what matters is Ubuntu is there on the system and failing to do the jo9b required of the OS - ie, look after IO without serious problem.