Ubuntu 13.04 arrives, Ubuntu 13.10 named

The release of Ubuntu 13.04 today sees the latest version of the popular Linux distribution visibly changed little from its predecessors. Canonical has chosen to emphasise the engineering process changes and improvements in quality that came from those changes, such as a more responsive desktop and better visual ambience, in 13.04 and made it clear that any radical changes, like the incorporation of the Mir display server, will happen in October's release of Ubuntu 13.10.

13.04 is more notable for what didn't make it into the release. For example, the promised improvements in privacy controls for the Dash search-and-launch tool did not get included in this release; users are still faced with an all-or-nothing choice when it comes to including internet results in searches. For a full breakdown of what has changed in Ubuntu 13.04 though, consult The H feature - "What's new in Ubuntu 13.04".

Normally, the name for the next release of Ubuntu appears some days after a new release, but it appears that Mark Shuttleworth was eager to let the community know what 13.10 would be named and published a blog post this afternoon. The new name, "Saucy Salamander", is said by Shuttleworth to reflect that "you’ll find salamanders swimming in clear, clean upstreams" and that "we’re saucy too – life’s to short to be stodgy or stilted".

(djwm)