Well, we dodged a bullet. Instead of Octopoid Octopus, Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu Linux and its parent company Canonical, has chosen Oneiric Ocelot for Ubuntu’s November 2011 version name.
Unless you’re a film maven, your first question is probably: “What’s Oneiric!?” I know it as a film criticism term for dream sequences in a movie. Or as Shuttleworth explained, “Oneiric means “dreamy”, and the combination with Ocelot reminds me of the way innovation happens: part daydream, part discipline.” I’ll buy that. But, let’s get down to brass tacks: What does this mean? What can we expect from this version?
For starters, you should keep in mind that the next version of Ubuntu, Natty Narwhal, is going to be quite different from the current version of Ubuntu. The most striking difference is that starting with Ubuntu 11.04, Ubuntu will be using the Unity desktop instead of GNOME 3. In addition, it will the April Ubuntu will be using several new default applications, including Banshee to play music, and its windowing system will be based on Wayland instead of the X Window System.