Saucy Salamander

[forrestcupp]

I know, but the animal names tend to stick after release.

A golden rule within marketing is to establish one strong identity of a brand. People (meaning an ordinary non-technical end user) should not wonder "what's the difference between 13.04 and Raring".

But this is their way of establishing a strong identity of their brand. It's been that way since the very first release. People just expect that out of Ubuntu. That's one thing it's known for.

[iamkuriouspurpleoranj]

Yeah, today it's a byword for risqué etc. but at the time of Shakespeare it meant impudent/impertinent. It's a rather tame word, really.

[ARooster]

But this is their way of establishing a strong identity of their brand. It's been that way since the very first release. People just expect that out of Ubuntu. That's one thing it's known for.

Yes, but they wish to grow. If all they cared about was keeping their existing users Unity would look more like GNOME 2. Yes, Unity is getting to be quite stable. It looks good and it's a lot less fidgety and more productivity-friendly than say Cairo dock. Yes, the vast majority of people switching to other distros when Unity first came out was probably due to the stability issues and this seems to be in the past now. But still, the move was too fast and too radical if they wanted to just "keep the boat steady." They were trying to reinvent themselves and to push towards a larger fan base. I am quite certain a more tame brand name would be less of a put-off for the old hands than constantly changing the UI functionality.

[Ichtyandr]

Apparently there is already a cafe under that name in Annapolis, MD

[ARooster]

Apparently there is already a cafe under that name in Annapolis, MD

Perhaps they could add a Hot Ubuntu pancake - a pancake with decoration in the shape of Ubuntu logo - to their breakfast offering...

[codingman]

Being non-native in English I have to ask the stupid question: Is 'saucy' used in everyday language..

Not the last time I checked, except in Italian restaurants.

[codingman]

Hehehe, gee, thanks! Well, I've been calling them by version number since Karmic Koala. I do think the naming is a part of the problem with lack of popularity.

Yes, and Ubuntu certainly has low popularity...

[kevdog]

Yes, but they wish to grow. If all they cared about was keeping their existing users Unity would look more like GNOME 2. Yes, Unity is getting to be quite stable. It looks good and it's a lot less fidgety and more productivity-friendly than say Cairo dock. Yes, the vast majority of people switching to other distros when Unity first came out was probably due to the stability issues and this seems to be in the past now. But still, the move was too fast and too radical if they wanted to just "keep the boat steady." They were trying to reinvent themselves and to push towards a larger fan base. I am quite certain a more tame brand name would be less of a put-off for the old hands than constantly changing the UI functionality.

Although Unity and Cairo-Dock are on the surface similar -- but the have different functions. I can't say I would call them equivalent. I really like cairo-dock btw.

[roly33]

I think Canonical are following the Microsoft idea of codenames for development.

Windows XP= Whistler
Windows Vista= Longhorn
Windows 7= Blackcombe

Roland

[Paqman]

I do think the naming is a part of the problem with lack of popularity.

Can you think of any other highly popular operating systems that also use a version number and an animal-based codename?