yakkety codename

Mark Shuttleworth has revealed the codename of Ubuntu 16.10 in a bizarre new blog entry.

The Ubuntu founder typically announces the codename of the next Ubuntu release in an in-depth alliterative blog post, used to touch on the themes and aspirations of the new release cycle.

For 16.10, whose codename starts with ‘Y’, Shuttleworth has ditched the dictionary to deliver a far snappier soliloquy:

“Y is for …Yakkety yakkety yakkety yakkety yakkety yakkety yakkety yakkety yak. Naturally.”

Think Ubuntu’s self-appointed benevolent dictator for life is fooling around or trolling us? It doens’t seem so: the archive for ‘Yakkety Yak’ is already open @ archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/yakkety

What Does Yakkety Yak Mean?

Yakkety is a little obstuse. I know that “yakking” is an informal term for talking too much, but ‘yakkety’ could also be an alternative spelling of Yakety (as in Yakety Sax, a well known pop-jazz instrumental).

Google definitions describes a Yak “…a large domesticated wild ox with shaggy hair, humped shoulders, and large horns, used in Tibet as a pack animal and for its milk, meat, and hide.”

‘To yak’ also means to “talk at length about trivial or boring subjects.”

Are you a fan of the new name? What adjective and animal would you have chosen?

H/T Wes C!

Yakkety Yak