Multi-processor support by default for machines that need it

Note: Even though I'm creating this spec, I do not necessarily have the skills to implement it. I won't be able to physically attend the MV Developer summit either, but I'm available to join into a session on Teamspeak, Gobby, or on IRC. I hope that the Ubuntu Technical board will consider discussing this spec at the summit.

Dual Core CPU laptops (and even desktops) are becoming increasingly popular, and the performance enhancements by using an SMP kernel on these machines us huge, yet Ubuntu only ships with a non-smp kernel. This hurts simple benchmarking that a typical user would do when comparing an Ubuntu installation with their Windows installation, or even other Linux systems. Users typically don't know that they should install an SMP kernel to get the most out of their system, an alternative improvement might be to mention this in the release notes.

The other scenario is computer lab administrators that install Edubuntu on their school servers. Servers that run LTSP typically have 1 or 2 Xeon CPU's, and even if it only has one CPU, it would normally have hyper-threading that is disabled on a standard kernel. Having an SMP kernel available at install time would also be a great convenience to school administrators, who also usually don't know that they have to install a new kernel to optimise their classroom performance.

I suggest that this specification will be a placeholder for discussion on the subject, and that alternative methods be explored to make it easier for the end user to install or use an SMP kernel on their machines.