Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" to be Perfect Ten

The successor to the long-awaited Ubuntu 10.04 due out in April should be no less than a "perfect 10," Ubuntu expert Mark Shuttleworth expressed in his blog. Planning for it should begin at the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Brussels in May, with a design track and a "cloud and server" track already set, which Shuttleworth envisions as "major focal points in 2010."

The new theme will be "Light." With 10.10 the whole user interface will be redesigned, "aiming for the lightest, fastest web experience on any platform. The fastest boot, the fastest network connect, the fastest browser." Shuttleworth hopes for "far and away the best" Ubuntu Netbook Edition (UNE).

The Ubuntu Server, on the other hand, will focus on cloud computing. Shuttleworth sees the goals of the release best expressed through its mascot, the meerkat –– light, fast and social. Maverick Meerkat should appear around October 2010.