Ubuntu 10.10 Codename Announced: Maverick Meerkat

The official codename for Ubuntu 10.10 has finally been announced and it's: Maverick Meerkat.

I admit, I had no idea what a Meerkat is so I Googled it:

The meerkat or suricate Suricata suricatta, a small mammal, is a member of the mongoose family. Meerkats live in all parts of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana and in South Africa. A group of meerkats is called a "mob", "gang" or "clan". A meerkat clan often contains about 20 meerkats, but some superfamilies have 50 or more members. Meerkats have an average life span of 12-14 years.

[quote via Wikipedia]

Well, that's too bad, I really liked Magical Mouse or Majestic Mammoth =)

The reason for choosing Meerkat as the mascot is (according to Mark Shuttleworth):

Meerkats are, of course, light, fast and social – everything we want in a Perfect 10. [...] They are also clever – meerkats teach one another new skills. And that’s what makes this such a great community.

In the same blog post, Mark also says that:

Our new theme is “Light”, and the next cycle will embrace that at many levels. We have a continued interest in netbooks, and we’ll revamp the Ubuntu Netbook Edition user interface. As computers become lighter they become more mobile, and we’ll work to keep people connected, all day, everywhere. We’ll embrace the web, aiming for the lightest, fastest web experience on any platform. The fastest boot, the fastest network connect, the fastest browser. Our goal is to ensure that UNE is far and away the best desktop OS for a netbook, both for consumers and power users.

Could that mean that Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.10 Maverick Meerkat (if not Ubuntu Desktop also) might ditch Firefox in favor of Chrome/Chromium? Or even Opera (because Opera 10.5* seems the fastest browser at the moment)?

The Ubuntu Maverick Meerkat 10.10 release schedule can be found HERE.


See also: A Look At All Ubuntu Mascots (Code Names)