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Ubuntu 9 Is Jaunty Jackalope, Coming Next April

mr_3ntropy writes "Ars is reporting Mark Shuttleworth announced today that Ubuntu 9.04 will be called Jaunty Jackalope, to be released next April. It will focus on improving boot times and the convergence of desktop and web. The 8.10 release, Intrepid Ibex, is coming next month with GNOME 2.24 and will include better support for subnotebooks."

69 of 318 comments (clear)

  1. Why is this important? by yohanes · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's just a name.

    1. Re:Why is this important? by Shadow_139 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Then way is "Ubuntu Satanic edition" Banned from Distrowatch?
      http://ubuntusatanic.org/news/

    2. Re:Why is this important? by martinw89 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Because Ubuntu Christian Edition damned them off Distrowatch?

    3. Re:Why is this important? by Seraphim_72 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Because the name is juvenile flamebait? The creator of the distro isn't a Satanist, and neither are the posters on his board. The only reason to name it thusly is to irritate a group of people pointlessly. Yeah, yeah Freedom of Speach, yada yada. It doesn't mean that Distro Watch has to give a crap about your distro either.

      --
      Slashdot, where armchair scientists get shouted down and armchair theologians get modded up.
    4. Re:Why is this important? by Joe+Snipe · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Because the name is juvenile flamebait? The creator of the distro isn't a Satanist, and neither are the posters on his board. The only reason to name it thusly is to irritate a group of people pointlessly

      Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't that the whole point of satanism? I was under the impression that satanism (as told by Anton LaVey)was the father of flamebait, something to do with getting your message heard through scandal and gossip? That the group doesn't necessarily follow satanism doesn't make the goal any less satanic; I know plenty of people associated with other religons that don't follow said religon, hell (no pun intended) most people aren't aware of anything beyond the basic tenants of their faith (at least with regard to said faith). I don't know about this banning or why it happened, but if it's because of what you suggest the argument seems pretty weak.

      --
      Sometimes, life itself is sarcasm...
    5. Re:Why is this important? by grayn0de · · Score: 2, Funny

      Then way is "Ubuntu Satanic edition" Banned from Distrowatch? http://ubuntusatanic.org/news/

      ... because they didn't name it Saucy Satan, Satanic Sloth, Slutty Salamander or any other fitting name, maybe?

    6. Re:Why is this important? by Tubal-Cain · · Score: 2, Funny

      Probably. I don't remember.

    7. Re:Why is this important? by tokul · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Freedom of Speech only applies with respect to the Government, not private entities.

      Rephrasing T.Jefferson. Private entities are free to ignore other religions.

      You have the right to speak. Others have the right not to listen.

    8. Re:Why is this important? by Have+Brain+Will+Rent · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Boot times and web integration????

      It would be nice if they quit making low priority, and at times frankly pointless, changes and concentrated on making it both useful to users and a happy experience. From Gutsy to Hardy the applications presented in the toolbar changed - for no good reason as far as I can see, needlessly confusing users. At the same time basic UI improvements went undone. I was going to remove Evolution for someone until I saw what synaptic said would also need to be removed... choice apparently doesn't include letting the users decide for themselves what mail, calendar etc. to use...

      It isn't that I don't appreciate what the Ubuntu people are doing but they are fooling themselves if they think that installing and using Ubuntu (or any other distro I suspect) is anything like a friendly, happy experience for a new user. If it comes preconfigured on a system and the user doesn't want to change anything then maybe... but otherwise normal human beings aren't going to be happy.

      Here's an example - iirc Ubuntu is going to make Samba the default file share mechanism (rather than NFS)... I tried using it to copy a directory tree for someone and it bitched about file names being too long... now they weren't too long for the source (Win2K) and they weren't too long for Hardy but apparently they were too long for Samba...the limit seemed to be 128. They were music files with artist, album, track number, track name etc. in the file name... very easy to get past 128 chars. Imagine being a naive user and getting that message... they will give up

      If you're coming from a windows environment is it obvious in Ubuntu how to copy, rather than move, a file to a directory? I don't think so. Yes you can find it in the docs but users don't want to read the docs - why do things differently (just to be different?) and cause the user to have to work needlessly? Maybe just doing it the way Windows does is a patent problem thing but it was one of the first problems my friend encountered.

      My suggestion to Ubuntu folk is this - pay a bunch of people to use the current system and tell you what they don't like - and then change what *they* want not what you think they should want changed. Get people who have never used a computer, get people who have used a computer but not Ubuntu or other distros, get people who have used the current version for some months... I bet you boot times and web integration aren't anywhere near the top of the resulting wish-list.

      And geez, it's the 21st century and we still have fixed limits on the length of paths and filenames?

      --
      The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny - Aesop
    9. Re:Why is this important? by zsau · · Score: 2, Informative

      Surprisingly, that's actually a remarkably bad idea. Users are not usability experts. They're also really really nice people. Once they've found out how to do something (on their own or aided), they'll think its their fault and they'll tell you want a nice system you've really got and how they'd be quite happy to use it. That is, unless you're unfortunate enough to get a bunch of geeks to be your participants. Not because there's anything wrong with geeks, but because geeks aren't the target of (Ubuntu/Gnome's) usability studies.

      Usability studies must be monitored by a trained expert, and their review of a user's behavior and recommendations based on that is much more important. If you think I'm wrong, for you and your friends at least, then you might be right, for you and your friends: but you're geeks and you have different priorities.

      And as for faster startup times, the last thing you want to do is to frustrate users by making them wait to begin with. Us geeks have worked out methods of getting around this: we leave our computers on or suspend them whenever we can; we go get breakfast or have a shower or perform other aspects of our morning ritual when that's not an option. But for people who the computer isn't an important part of their life, their not going to do these things. The chance of them using their computer is going to be related to the startup speed of their computer,

      (I'm also not sure what the "Windows way" of copying a file to another directory is. I can think of at least three, and I don't use Windows that often. Probably there's more.)

      --
      Look out!
  2. Re:Then what is "Intrepid?" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Read the entire summary.

  3. I agree.. but... by sleeponthemic · · Score: 3, Funny

    Hard for new people to take it seriously as an OS when the naming scheme is that out there.

    Stick to product numbers, futuristic ones are the best. For example: Ubuntu 2000. Fucking genius hitech name for the future. Have that name for free. I'm too busy trademarking "hurricane computing".

    --
    I record my sleeptalking
    1. Re:I agree.. but... by geminidomino · · Score: 3, Funny

      Stick to product numbers, futuristic ones are the best. For example: Ubuntu 2000. Fucking genius hitech name for the future.

      Hate to tell you this, but 2000 isn't the future anymore. We just got body cavity searches to buy a cup of coffee instead of jetpacks.

    2. Re:I agree.. but... by moosesocks · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If you're doing almost exactly one release per year, it's actually not at all bad as a naming convention.

      --
      -- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
    3. Re:I agree.. but... by Blimey85 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Have you never visited Bash? It's proof that you don't need to be a genius to use IRC.

      --
      How is it that one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?
    4. Re:I agree.. but... by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 4, Funny

      Hate to tell you this, but 2000 isn't the future anymore. We just got body cavity searches to buy a cup of coffee instead of jetpacks.

      That would be Ubuntu 1984.

      --
      When information is power, privacy is freedom.
    5. Re:I agree.. but... by WK2 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I've seen this argument before, and it is disgustingly ironic. Codenames that are unrelated to what they describe have the advantage that they can describe something else if needed. For example, it was originally assumed that Ubuntu Dapper Drake would become 6.04 LTS. However, they delayed the release for a couple of months for stability reasons, and Dapper Drake became 6.06. If they had referred to Dapper Drake as 6.04 from the start, the change would have been more difficult. Also, codenames are easier to remember, and more difficult to mis-type.

      What you are suggesting is that they reduce functionality to make it "sound better", which is the opposite of professional.

      --
      Write your own Choose Your Own Adventure. http://www.freegameengines.org/gamebook-engine/
  4. Jackalope? by torstenvl · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Aren't Ubuntu releases usually named after animals that actually exist?

    1. Re:Jackalope? by bonkeydcow · · Score: 5, Funny

      They do exist! I have seen the postcards.

    2. Re:Jackalope? by Tubal-Cain · · Score: 2, Informative
    3. Re:Jackalope? by Bloodoflethe · · Score: 2, Funny

      You would prefer Jabberwock, perhaps?

      --
      "Little is much when little you need."
    4. Re:Jackalope? by geminidomino · · Score: 4, Funny

      Liar. Python doesn't do references. Use a list.

    5. Re:Jackalope? by athakur999 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Sassy Sasquatch?
      Cheeky Chucacabra?
      Moody Manbearpig?

      --
      "People that quote themselves in their signatures bother me" - athakur999
  5. Re:"M" is for Moronic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    coming (no pun intended) on the heels of hairy hardon, is this surprising?

  6. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 2, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  7. Guessing the new name is fun... by MindKata · · Score: 3, Funny

    Not sure about "Intrepid $animal". As for Jaunty Jackalope?, what a name ... I was hoping for a Jucy Jezabel. Oh well, at least they are going for Intrepid Ibex. My best guess was Incontinent Iguana. So what next?, Kinky Hangaroo and Lopsided Lobster?

    Oh well, trying to guess the new name is making waiting for each update more fun. Maybe Microsoft should try using names. I guess they could try to be different and start with Zoosporangium Zebra and work backwards.

    --
    There are 10 kinds of people in the world... those who understand binary and those who don't.
    1. Re:Guessing the new name is fun... by WDot · · Score: 3, Funny

      I was hoping for Jazzy $animal. I know what Jaunty means, but when hearing the sound of the word I think "jaundice." When I hear jazzy I think "awesome."

    2. Re:Guessing the new name is fun... by SeePage87 · · Score: 3, Funny

      I guess they could try to be different and start with Zoosporangium Zebra and work backwards.

      How is that different? Seems like Microsoft has been working backwards for quite some time now.

    3. Re:Guessing the new name is fun... by snoyberg · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Why does everyone assume the Z will be Zebra? What about the Zorillas?

      --
      Thank God for evolution.
    4. Re:Guessing the new name is fun... by camperdave · · Score: 2, Funny

      Doh, Kinky Kangaroo, not a Hangaroo.

      Not to worry, my OCR can't handle some of my handwriting either.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    5. Re:Guessing the new name is fun... by Chris+Burke · · Score: 4, Funny

      Not sure about "Intrepid $animal". As for Jaunty Jackalope?, what a name ... I was hoping for a Jucy Jezabel. Oh well, at least they are going for Intrepid Ibex. My best guess was Incontinent Iguana. So what next?, Kinky Hangaroo and Lopsided Lobster?

      I think the theme should go beyond just "adjective + animal starting with the same letter". There should be a theme in the adjectives, and Kinky Kangaroo should be the basis.

      Kinky Kangaroo
      Lecherous Lobster
      Masturbating Mongoose
      Naughty Naked Mole Rat
      Orgasmic Orangutan
      Penetrating Porpoise
      Queer Quail
      Randy Rabbit

      And so on. Now doesn't that kind of thematic continuity speak to quality and professionalism? People say the Ubuntu names are holding it back because they sound childish and nobody outside us geeks could recognize them. But when you say "I have Naughty Naked Mole Rat on my laptop!", people will instantly know that's the follow-on to the successful Masturbating Mongoose.

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
  8. What I want to know is by 3p1ph4ny · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...what the hell are they going to do after 26 releases?

    As far as I know, there's only three animals that start with "aa", and no adjectives. Unless they're going to roll over to just "a" again, which would be lame (but more practical).

    1. Re:What I want to know is by Azaril · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Im a fan of Ubuntu, but if its still running in 2017 in its current format without being replaced at the top, I'd be really worried about the lack of competition in the free software movement.

    2. Re:What I want to know is by LighterShadeOfBlack · · Score: 5, Funny

      ...what the hell are they going to do after 26 releases?

      I lay awake in bed at night wondering the same thing, cold sweat running down my face as I count down the seconds until the release of Ubuntu 17.10. Then I consider that the world is becoming increasingly unstable and fractured and I realise that there's a good chance the human race will destroy itself in a fiery hellstorm of nuclear war long before then. With this thought comes overwhelming relief and I cry myself to sleep with tears of joy that I will never have to face the terrible reality of knowing what comes after Zesty Zebra.

      --
      Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and stupid comments are intentional.
    3. Re:What I want to know is by lolocaust · · Score: 5, Informative

      17 represents the year 2017. 2017-2004=13, because the original release was in 2004. 13x2=26, because releases are every 6 months, i.e. twice a year.

      --
      Why does my post history abruptly stop? I want to laugh at the stupid things I posted as a kid.
    4. Re:What I want to know is by scubamage · · Score: 5, Funny

      Without a reboot, no less.

    5. Re:What I want to know is by scubamage · · Score: 2, Funny

      I can't wait for horny hedgehog. And nubile nakedmolerat.

    6. Re:What I want to know is by bonkeydcow · · Score: 2, Funny

      a aggravated aardvark

    7. Re:What I want to know is by daenris · · Score: 3, Funny

      Hopefully they'd limit themselves to grammatically correct choices. So, no to that.

    8. Re:What I want to know is by Prefader · · Score: 2, Informative

      In Ubuntu, there are more than two releases per year.

      Really? Since I've been using it, there's only been 2 per year - the x.04 (April), and x.10 (October) releases. This has been the case since Hoary (4.10?), as far as I know.

    9. Re:What I want to know is by rmccann · · Score: 2, Informative

      The first ubuntu release, 4.10 was warty warthog. there never was an 'a' release

    10. Re:What I want to know is by mollymoo · · Score: 5, Funny

      I lay awake in bed at night wondering the same thing, cold sweat running down my face as I count down the seconds until the release of Ubuntu 17.10. Then I consider that the world is becoming increasingly unstable and fractured and I realise that there's a good chance the human race will destroy itself in a fiery hellstorm of nuclear war long before then.

      Nuclear war? We're all gonna die tomorrow when we get turned to strangelets by the LHC. I've withdrawn all my savings and will be blowing the lot on hookers and cocaine tonight. That's what I do every Tuesday and I won't let the end of the world spoil my fun!

      --
      Chernobyl 'not a wildlife haven' - BBC News
    11. Re:What I want to know is by Centurix · · Score: 5, Funny

      [ucking [ruitbats

      --
      Task Mangler
    12. Re:What I want to know is by mhall119 · · Score: 3, Informative

      But that's like, what, 5 releases?

      --
      http://www.mhall119.com
    13. Re:What I want to know is by mhall119 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Actually, Ubuntu never had an A, B or C named release, they started alphabetical order with Dapper Drake. They've also already used W (Warty Warthog) and repeated H (Hoary Hedgehog and Hardy Heron).

      --
      http://www.mhall119.com
    14. Re:What I want to know is by temcat · · Score: 5, Funny

      I would start with A again, and call the new release simply Animal Adjective.

    15. Re:What I want to know is by petermgreen · · Score: 2, Informative

      You're forgetting Breezy Badger though there was indeed no A or C named release.

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
    16. Re:What I want to know is by MrFlannel · · Score: 3, Informative

      Only LTS releases will get point releases, but they're not really "releases" just refreshes of the ISOs, it's nothing meaningful as far as installed systems are concerned (I guess it's useful for setting milestone goals or something, but that's not technical). They take the updated packages, throw them on the CD so you don't have to download as many updates after you install.
      Having an installed system that you updated completely the day the images were released* would leave you with the same system.

      And while we're being thorough they're offset by three months, so January an August.

      See http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/146 for more information (including fancy pictures).

      * It's likely a day or two before release, whenever the images are created, yadda yadda.

      --
      Clones are people two.
    17. Re:What I want to know is by jep77 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Ubuntu XP

    18. Re:What I want to know is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Anal Ass

      you mean, Difficult Donkey?

    19. Re:What I want to know is by smclean · · Score: 2, Funny

      At least until the end of time().

      --

      "'Yrch!' said Legolas, falling into his own tongue."

    20. Re:What I want to know is by wanderingknight · · Score: 4, Funny

      Until 2037, then?

  9. Moving on to imaginary creatures now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    All the critters named up till now have all been real animals right? I just hope that means they move on to nethack creatures... like Nifty Naga!

  10. The translation of this name by martinw89 · · Score: 4, Funny

    In the PyWeek IRC room, one person found the translation for this name:

    "I'm so rich I've gone to space so I can name this whatever the fuck I feel like."

  11. Re:What happened to "I"? by somersault · · Score: 5, Funny

    If you'd bravely soldiered on to the third sentence of the summary (don't strain yourself now, remember to take a 5 minute break in between sentences), you would have found out!

    --
    which is totally what she said
  12. Speed is important... by Blice · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm glad they're finally going to put some attention on boot time and speed. I'm a big fan of getting your boot times down, mine is 8 seconds (brag brag...).

    But when I see Ubuntu and it boots slower than XP and... Well, feels slower than XP, I have to facepalm. Linux is supposed to be the faster one, it's supposed to be the one where you can say "Man, you use XP? It's so slow! Use Linux!", but with Ubuntu you can't really say that. Not that it's Ubuntu's fault, I put the blame on Gnome. The Gnome desktop is bulky and slow, your *panel* shouldn't be using CPU cycles constantly, or the amount of memory gnome-panel uses. There's alternatives for sure (And I'm not talking about KDE, it's almost as bad.), but you have to piece it together yourself because it isn't a single DE. I.E, Openbox WM, pypanel or bmpanel or lxpanel or lbpanel or one of those (I prefer pypanel and bmpanel), pcmanfm filenavigator (Can also set icons on the desktop and manage wallpapers), and on and on. There's tons of lightweight programs out there with the same abilities, just not packaged neatly together. But people are trying! Just have a look at crunchbang linux and DEs like lxde. Using this stuff, you can get that old 550mhz thinkpad you have in your closet up and running again, webbrowsing and e-mailing at lightning speeds. THIS, to me, is what Linux should represent. Not the slow bulky thing you have to buy a new computer for!

    But about the other things with the new Ubuntu release, polishlinux has a great review of what Ubuntu alpha looks like right now, and what we can expect from it here.

    Looks like nautilus is finally getting tabs, although the lighter pcmanfm has had tabs for awhile. I'm really excited about is improvements with the network manager and with xorg... Two places that really need improvement. Seems like wireless support improves with each release, and I hope it continues on that awesome path. And it seems that the kernel 2.6.27 will be out in time for this release! It's already on rc5, and most kernels don't go past rc10 before release (And they're releasing an rc once a week, or about once a week).

    It's all very exciting, but again the one thing I hope for more than anything else is speed and bloat! Keep Linux the OS that you say "You don't even have to get a new computer for it. It's fast, unlike Vista/XP/OSX/Everythingever", please please please

    1. Re:Speed is important... by Bob-taro · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Mod parent up. I was getting annoyed that no-one seemed to care about anything except what they named the release! I was starting to think I was on a PHB forum!

      --
      Prov 9:8 Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you; rebuke the wise and they will love you.
    2. Re:Speed is important... by xenocide2 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Fundamentally, a binary package is a set of files to be installed in specific locations. Those specific locations are built into relationships between files, both within packages and between packages. Between packages is an important part of the equation -- it allows the entire system to run a set of shared binary libraries. If every application carried it's own version of gtk or other libraries and didn't share RAM, the modern desktop would be unworkable.

      What companies want is a single binary to run on "Linux", the way a single binary runs on "Windows". But it's not just a matter of writing alien, which can convert RPM binary archives into .deb archives. You need binary compatible libraries!

      --
      I Browse at +4 Flamebait

      Open Source Sysadmin

    3. Re:Speed is important... by atraintocry · · Score: 2

      Unfortunately sometimes you just have to build it. If you're only ever relying on what other people have built for other systems, you're going to run across compatibility problem sometimes. I had an experience like he had with Lightscribe drivers.

      This is why people rail against binary blobs. Everyone replies with "what's the harm?"...but everyone's going to get bitten hard by a situation like that, and most of the time it's because they didn't have option of just building from source.

      Which, by the way, usually completely painless. You don't have to be a coder or anything.

      The LSB looks pretty promising though. I don't have much experience with it, and it sounds pretty business/ISV oriented ("get certified d00ds!"), but maybe we'll see more packages being built against it.

  13. Re:What about Ubuntu 10.10 by bonkeydcow · · Score: 3, Funny

    I have heard of monkeys, but what is this Mastubrating [sic] you speak of?

  14. Ubuntu's marketing department by Cro+Magnon · · Score: 4, Funny

    must have nixed "Jaunty Jackass". :(

    --
    Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
  15. Thanks Slashdot! by The+MAZZTer · · Score: 2, Funny

    I never would have guessed that 9.04 (IE 04/2009) would be coming next April.

  16. Re:I can't wait by Von+Helmet · · Score: 2, Funny

    Ubuntu Jack Bauer

    If Jack Bauer says his name begins with the letter X, you better agree with him.

  17. Better J names by jimmy_dean · · Score: 2, Funny

    1. Jumping Joey
    2. Jaded Jackal
    3. Justice Jaguar

    --
    -> Sometimes, you just gotta break free from the shackles of proprietary code.
  18. Annual release naming by tepples · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If you're doing almost exactly one release per year, it's actually not at all bad as a naming convention.

    At least it works for EA's Madden NFL product.

  19. Re:What about Ubuntu 10.10 by Chris+Burke · · Score: 3, Funny

    Give him a break, he was typing with one hand.

    --

    The enemies of Democracy are
  20. Ubuntu/PPC Community Needed by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Canonical, the corporation that owns the Ubuntu distro (ie, Red Hat Inc's and Microsoft's direct competitor), has dropped official support of PowerPC from its work. Which means that PPC architecture versions of Ubuntu are falling behind, even to the point where the kernel in the latest releases cannot boot on PPC machines. PPC isn't just old Macs and powerful dedicated workstations. It's also the main core in many supercomputers, lots of embedded CPU devices, and the Sony PS3. Those machines need more active work to keep Ubuntu working on them.

    But PPC is still supported as part of the Ubuntu project as a community effort, which is what Open Source is all about. If you've got some spare cycles, or even better some independently developed PPC code, to help Ubuntu keep running on the PowerPC architecture, please join the people supporting the community distro.

    --

    --
    make install -not war

  21. Darn, when is ManBearPig coming? by Spinlock_1977 · · Score: 2, Funny

    I want to see Al Gore get involved. How about a ManBearPig release?

    --
    - The Kessel run is for nerf herders. I can circumnavigate the entire Central Finite Curve in a lot less than 12 parse
  22. Don't confuse change with progress by mangu · · Score: 2, Funny

    geeks like Unix, so we should be stuck in the 1970s until the end of time

    It has been said that the cave geek who invented the wheel made it square. Then another cave geek improved it, making it triangular: one less bump per turn.

    Repeat after me: not every change is for the better.