Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Ubuntu Release Naming Scheme




The official name of an Ubuntu release is "Ubuntu X.YY" with X representing the year (minus 2000) and YY representing the month of eventual release within in that year. Ubuntu's first release, made in 2004 October (10th month) was Ubuntu 4.10. Since the actual release date is not known until it's ready and humans tend to prefer names rather than numbers, a set of code names are used by developers and testers during the build up to a release:
Adjective
Animal
Version
Description

Warty
Warthog
4.10
The first "hog"

Hoary
Hedgehog
5.04
Meaning "covered with hair", or "mature/old/wise"

Breezy
Badger
5.10
was going to be "Bendy Badger"... :)

Dapper
Drake
6.06
Polished, with 5 years of support!

Edgy
Eft
6.10
Fire up the crackpipes! (?!)

Feisty
Fawn
7.04
Courage and restlessness

Gutsy
Gibbon
7.10
Go Ape!

Hardy
Heron
8.04
Hardy Heron with 5 years of support! Most people wanted Happy/Hungry Hippo :(

Intrepid
Ibex
8.10
Released October 2008

Jaunty
Jackalope
9.04
Released April 2009

Karmic
Koala
9.10
Released October 2009

Lucid
Lynx
10.04

The development codename of a release takes the form "Adjective Animal". So for example: Warty Warthog (Ubuntu 4.10), Hoary Hedgehog (Ubuntu 5.04), Breezy Badger (Ubuntu 5.10), are the first three releases of Ubuntu. In general, people refer to the release using the adjective, like "warty" or "breezy".