From the 'Sacred Cows' files:

For the most part, Fedora Linux releases have had names that weren't particularly controversial. For instance, Fedora 16 was named Verne and the default desktop wallpaper had a submarine type theme (an hommage to 20,000 Leagues under the Sea). With Fedora 17, which was officially released on Tuesday the codename is Beefy Miracle. It's a theme that has its own mascot and it's a fun one.

Yet despite that, the default Fedora 17 desktop has no Beefy Miracle.

That's right, there is no 'obvious' connection between the name Beefy Miracle and the default desktop wallpaper/theme.

Why is that?

I asked Fedora Project Leader, Robyn Bergeron and this is what she told me:

What we do have is the fireworks wallpaper which is derived from the background on the Beefy Miracle site. Part of the reason why we don't have a default Beefy Miracle wallpaper is because there was some discussion that perhaps in some cultures beef is not appreciated and there was some back and forth about that.

Beefy Miracle is cute, but I don't think that everyone wanted his beady eyes staring at them all day.

The whole Beefy Miracle name has led to further discussion in the Fedora community about the future of naming for the Linux distribution. Fedora 18 is currently set to be called : Spherical Cow. Bergeron told me that the discussions are ongoing and whether or not Fedora sticks with hits current naming policies remains to be determined.

Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.