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Jaunty Jackalope, 7, or Leopard?  Based on name alone, which would you choose?  Given context there’s a chance you’d choose 7 or even Leopard, but possibly never Jaunty Jackalope (nor its predecessors Intrepid Idex and Hardy Heron).  That could be from the stigma that surrounds Linux including its most popular distribution, Ubuntu.

Analyzing the trends

Looking at a quick Google Trends its obvious that Ubuntu 9.04 , with the project name of Jaunty Jackalope, just can’t compete with Windows 7 and the current Mac OS X Leopard.  While Windows 7 hit a high point back in January when the beta was released, Leopard remained steady over the past year (though the upcoming Snow Leopard proved less popular), with Jaunty Jackalope only actually showing on the graph in mid-March as it got closer to release.  Perhaps the name just isn’t all that popular, or maybe its just that people don’t know about it, or maybe Google searches are unnecessary in finding out more information.

Silly code names

There is a small chance that Ubuntu is limiting itself by using code names that some may perceive as silly compared to the others.  However, Jaunty Jackalope is a lot easier to remember than Ubuntu 9.04, just like Snow Leopard is easier than Mac OS 10.6.  The name may sound silly comparatively, but code names are meant to be memorable and distinct. 

The name might not make a bit of difference, though, and probably doesn’t.  The name can be as memorable and silly as Canonical wants to make it, the truth is that once people find out it’s Linux they get scared away, without even testing Jaunty/Inrepid/Hardy or whatever version of Ubuntu they found.  Maybe if they abandoned the Linux identifier it would garner more attention for how easy it can be to use.