Ubuntu 8.10, the "Intrepid Ibex," hasn't been released yet and there are already plans being discussed for the following distribution of this Linux OS, dubbed "The Jaunty Jackalope." Ubuntu distributions have long had odd animal names, only this time around they've chosen a folkloric creature. Let me tell you about my crazy jackalope experience.
When I was in sixth grade I had a somewhat eccentric teacher. She had a huge hollowed-out box TV (you know, the ones with the fake wood exterior) that sometimes had a fish tank inside, a subscription to The Nome Nugget (current and back issues piled up on a table near the window), endless slides of her Hawaiian vacation and a lot of stories about the jackalope. She had been out west and had seen everyone speaking with straight faces about the jackalope. This is a rabbit with antelope antlers. She showed us pictures and insisted the animal was real. She mock two of us for not believing. I couldn't imagine how a rabbit could have horns (I knew a little about evolutionary theory and families of animals at the time) and the other boy took a similar angle in saying that such an animal wouldn't survive well. Specifically, he argued that it would be easy for him to hunt.
The point of this future Ubuntu distribution being named after the jackalope may be that the developers will be working on making boot-up and restart speed much faster (the jackalope is said to be lightening fast), and in keeping with the hybrid nature of the mythical animal they are talking about integrating desktop applications more fully with the Internet ("weblications").
Despite the dislike I gained in childhood for the jackalope, the direction the Ubuntu folks are taking sounds great. As soon as I manage to rebuild a PC I plan to install whatever the most recent distribution of Ubuntu will be at the time. I'd love to take it for a test drive. I just won't be loading it on the main family computer any time soon.
See Also:
Ubuntu Home Page
Ubuntu details next project: 'Jaunty Jackalope'
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