Those crazy developer kids with their cheeky prototype names. Mark Shuttleworth announced that Ubuntu's next release will carry the development code name Gutsy Gibbon, following in the footsteps of Feisty Fawn, Edgy Eft and Dapper Drake (see a pattern?)

Gutsy Gibbon is scheduled for release in October of 2007, following Ubuntu's rigid and rapid release cycle. To be known in production as 7.10, Gutsy Gibbon will also take "an ultra-orthodox view of licensing: no firmware, drivers, imagery, sounds, applications, or other content which do not include full source materials and come with full rights of modification, remixing and redistribution"

For those of us that still want to get our non-GNU on, Automatix will no doubt be available for the new platform but, we're forced to wonder what code in the current;y circulating Ubuntu might get the heave-ho under a renewed focus on open and transparent source code.

What else is on the table for this next cycle of the fastest growing Linux distribution? An unattended, enterprise-geared installation package named Ubiquity which should make Ubuntu even more attractive to large corporate clients. Shuttleworth is also pushing -- third time is the charm -- for "composite by default", using the somewhat revolutionary Compiz 3D desktop environment. Although he's pushed for a default composite desktop before, he seems more realistic this time around, "There's a reasonable chance that Gutsy will deliver where those others have not. I remain convinced that malleable, transparent and extra-dimensional GUI's are a real opportunity for the free software community to take a lead in the field of desktop innovation "

[via Digg]