It can easily be noticed that a lot of seasoned Ubuntu users, especially in social locations such as the official Ubuntu forums and the Identi.ca Ubuntu group commonly use the development names of Ubuntu releases. Such development names being Jaunty Jackalope, Edgy Eft, Dapper Drake, Karmic Koala, etc. While this is suitable for those users who keep up with the Ubuntu development cycle or actively research such information, this may not necessarily be the best form of referencing the operating system for those who simply make use of Ubuntu as-is and do not specifically need to know these development names. The suitability and user-friendliness of referring to releases by their development name, especially after their official release date, can easily be brought into question.
The operating system itself makes minimal references to the code name, and mainly tries to refer to the release by the year and month version number. This certainly provides a more professional appearance to the product than the animal-based development names do, however, as so many tutorials and instructions found online refer to the development name, the animal name itself becomes more useful as a keyword for research than the official version number itself. This brings forth a dilemma of whether users should refer to Ubuntu releases by their development code names or their official version numbers. Whilst the official version number appears more professional, the development name is often referenced in articles such as ‘How to Install software-package on Jaunty Jackalope’. For example, the Miro download page primarily references the development name with the version number bracketed. Yet other software packages refer only to the version number (excluding the necessary inclusion of development name in the apt software repository line), such as the Dropbox file synchronisation program.
This naming ‘inconsistency’, if it can be called that, also exists in Mac OS X. The Mac OS X operating system consists of a name such as Leopard and also the version number. Apple, however, utilise the development name of their operating system as a marketing tool. An example being on Apple’s website, where Apple actively promote their computers as coming with ‘Leopard, the latest release of Mac OS X’. This seems unusual, to utilise the development name as a way to market a product, but does appear to work. Microsoft however always refer to their operating system by a definitive release name or number, ‘Windows 95′, ‘Windows XP’, ‘Windows Vista’ etc. Microsoft do not have an inconsistency in the release naming convention of their operating system and there is rarely confusion over which version of Microsoft Windows is installed on a system, as all Windows versions have a definitive, single name.
The reasoning behind this article is to provoke discussion and thoughts regarding how Ubuntu, and the Ubuntu community, should handle the issues of referring to any specific version of the operating system. Is ‘Jaunty Jackalope’ just as suitable as the more official sounding ’9.04′? Should one format be utilised more than the other? Should the community, as a whole, refer only to development releases by their development name, and official releases by their release version number? And finally, could the multiple namings currently used confuse or irritate new users and thus be a possible barrier to adoption?
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