Adventures in Switching to Linux

Ever since I started looking into running Ubuntu, I have wondered, what is the deal with the crazy version numbers? I first started playing with Ubuntu release 6.06. The release after that was 6.10 and then 7.04. How did they go from 6.06 -> 6.10 -> 7.04 and what is up with the weird zero X numbers?

Well the answer is both simple and logical. If you take a minute to look at the pattern, you will see it is obvious. The version is the year plus the month of the release. So 6.06 was released in June 2006, 6.10 in October 2006 and 7.04 in April 2007. I am currently running 7.10 which was released in October 2007. See how easy that is? It is also nice because then you know exactly how old or new the version you are dealing with is.

As detailed on the Ubuntu Wiki, release names are a little different...

• Warty Warthog was released in October 2004, release number 4.10.
• Hoary Hedgehog was released in April 2005, release number 5.04.
• Breezy Badger) was released in October 2005, release number 5.10.
• Dapper Drake) was released in June 2006, release number 6.06 LTS
• Edgy Eft) was released in October 2006, release number 6.10.
• Feisty Fawn) was released in April 2007, release number 7.04.
• Gutsy Gibson was released in October 2007, release number 7.10.
• Hardy Heron will be released in April 2008, release number 8.04

Although not a hard and fast rule, lately they have been going with code names in alphabetical order. I am hoping the 8.10 release will be called Infallible Iguana.

Also, from the outdated by 9+ months Ubuntu FAQ,

Note: The official way to refer to a released version of Ubuntu is by the number, not the name. Thus the current version of Ubuntu is 7.04, not Feisty Fawn.