Still wondering what the Ubuntu 17.10 codename will be? Well, it seems we have our answer.

According to this page on Launchpad, the home of Ubuntu development, Ubuntu 17.10 due in October is nicknamed the “Artful Aardvark”.

The ‘Artful’ repos have also opened, meaning packaging, tooling and development on the next short-term release of Ubuntu can now begin.

Mark Shuttleworth typically announces the new Ubuntu codename in an alliteratively ascribed blog post announcement, but one for the Artful Aardvark is yet to appear.

Not that this is a major surprise. We already knew that Ubuntu was going to be named after something beginning with ‘A’, though the ‘Acrobatic Aardvark’ moniker ventured by one Ubuntu developer seems to have been a wild guess rather than inadvertent leak!

It’s rather fitting that Ubuntu returns to the start of the alphabet as it kicks off a new chapter in its story. Ubuntu 17.10 will be the first version of Ubuntu in over 7 years to not ship with the Unity desktop by default.

Artful is an adjective which means to be skilful, clever or resourceful, often in a unconventional or unique manner.

An Aardvark is “a nocturnal badger-sized burrowing mammal of Africa, with long ears, a tubular snout, and a long extensible tongue, feeding on ants and termites.“