Next Ubuntu LTS Release to be a “Precise Pangolin”

Posted 10/10/2011 at 5:29am | by Pulkit Chandna

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Coming up with placeholder names for upcoming Ubuntu releases is an exercise in celebration of our rock’s biodiversity. It therefore carries great responsibility. Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth, though, seems to relish this challenge. Last week, he announced the code name of the next Ubuntu LTS (long term) release, which is scheduled for next April. Using its time-honored adjective-animal naming convention, Canonical has arrived at the name “Precise Pangolin” for Ubuntu 12.04.

“It’s a perennial pleasure to pick pertinent and/or pithy placeholder names for Ubuntu release,” wrote Shuttleworth on his site. “I’ve had diverse feedback, shall we say. The letter P is pretty perfect. It’s also plentiful – my inbox has been rather full of suggestions – and we have options ranging from pacific to purposeful, via puckish and prudent.”

Principled Paca, Perspicacious Panda and Porangi Packhorse were some of the other names in contention. But Canonical settled for Precise Pangolin as it wanted “something phonetic, something plausible and something peaceful too.”

“12.04 is an LTS. So we want it to be tough and long-lasting, reliable, solid as a rock and well defended,” he continued” It’s also going to be the face of Ubuntu for large deployments for a long time, so we want it to have no loose ends, we want it to be coherent, neat.”

“Balancing all of those options, I think we have just the right mix in our designated mascot for 12.04 LTS. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Precise Pangolin.”

Anyways, Precise Pangolin is still a fair way from release. In the meantime, you can look forward to the release of Oneiric Ocelot, which is scheduled for Thursday.