Ahead of its formal release, Canonical on Monday formally revealed the codename for the next Ubuntu version. CEO Mark Shuttleworth announced through a blog post that Ubuntu 17.04 would be called “Zesty Zapus”.
Nomenclature in the open source world is absurd. While Google prefers desert names for its Android iterations, Canonical picks adjective conventions in alphabetical order alongside obscure animals to name Ubuntu offerings.
This time, the Shuttleworth team reached to the last alphabet in the series and thus opted for “Zesty Zapus”. Though many enthusiasts were expecting something in relation to “Zebra”, Canonical has chosen “Zapus” as the star. This was a well-planned decision by the Ubuntu maker.
“In honour of the valiantly tiny leaping long-tailed over the obstacles of life, our next release which will be Ubuntu 17.04, is hereby codenamed the ‘Zesty Zapus’,” 43-year-old Shuttleworth wrote in the post.
Zapus is a genus of a jumping mouse that found in North America. Canonical metaphorically used its name to highlight the faster behaviour of Ubuntu across cloud and edge operations.
“From AWS to the zaniest new devices, Ubuntu helps people get things are done faster, cleaner and more efficiently, thanks to you,” Shuttleworth added.
The release date of next Ubuntu platform is yet to be revealed. However, its chucklesome codename is enough to incite excitement among developers. It also suggests the debut of some new features to enhance performance on existing hardware.
