In a twist that is sure to raise eyebrows and cause no end of neckbeard scratching, Canonical founder and Ubuntu’s de facto spiritual leader, Mark Shuttleworth, has announced that key parts of Ubuntu 13.04 will be developed in secret.

The reasoning is simple: Ubuntu 13.04 (dubbed Raring Ringtail, after the ring-tail cat/raccoon) will contain some features with “high ‘tada!’ value” (Shuttleworth’s words), and he would rather they stay secret until the big reveal. Judging by his words, Shuttleworth is sick of Ubuntu features being torn apart by critics before they’re ready. “We’ve … figured out that critics will be critics whether you discuss an idea with them in advance or not. Working on something in a way that lets you refine it till it feels ready to go has advantages: you can take time to craft something, you can be judged when you’re ready, you get a lot more punch when you tell your story, and you get your name in lights.”

In short, Shuttleworth is upset at the panning that Canonical’s Unity interface received — and he also wants better, broader, more excitable news coverage when new versions of Ubuntu drop.

As for what these secret features actually are, Shuttleworth says that Canonical’s skunkworks project (so called after Lockheed’s secretive R&D Skunk Works department) has something for everyone, from “webby, to artistic, to scientific, to glitzy, to privacy-enhancing, to analytical.” Unfortunately, that’s all we have to go on — and if you want to find out more, you’ll need to be a contributing member of the Ubuntu community that has “established credibility.”

The move towards secret development is understandable, but also vexing. There is nothing wrong with an open source project being developed privately (Google does this with Android), but it’s quite out of character for Ubuntu, which has historically outlined all of its features — and then worked with the community to implement them. By developing these features in private, the code won’t be reviewed and tested by the community at large, which could make 13.04 more prone to bugs or security issues.

Earlier today, following the release of Ubuntu 12.10, Shuttleworth also detailed what we can expect from 13.04. In a word, the focus will be mobile; tightening up the core of the operating system so that it uses less memory, less CPU time, and thus less battery power. By the time Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (long term support) rolls around, it is hoped that the core work on 13.04 will allow Canonical to produce an OS that runs equally well on laptops, desktops, smartphones, tablets, and TVs.

Now read: Ubuntu: Wake up and smell the Unity against you