Ubuntu overlord Mark Shuttleworth announced today that the codename for Ubuntu 9.04, which is expected to arrive in April, will be Jaunty Jackalope. Ubuntu releases are issued every six months and include the latest versions of popular open source software applications. Shuttleworth believes that Ubuntu is ready to compete with Windows and Mac OS X and he expects to see the open source Linux distribution ship on millions of devices in the coming year.

"The Warrior Rabbit is our talisman as we move into a year where we can reasonably expect Ubuntu to ship on several million devices, to consumers who can reasonably expect the software experience to be comparable to those of the traditional big OSV's—Microsoft and Apple," he wrote in a mailing list post. "The bar is set very high, and we have been given the opportunity to leap over it. It's a once-in-a-lifetime chance to shine, and we want to make sure that the very best thinking across the whole open source ecosystem is reflected in Ubuntu, because many people will judge free software as a whole by what we do."

The Ubuntu development community is currently gearing up for the 8.10 release, codenamed Intrepid Ibex, which is scheduled for next month. Ibex will include GNOME 2.24 and lots of other new stuff. We took an early look at 8.10 back in June and characterized it as a nice incremental bump that will bring improved support for subnotebook devices.

Following the release of 8.10 in October, the developers will begin planning for Jaunty Jackalope. The blueprints will be assembled during the upcoming Ubuntu Developer Summit which will take place after FOSSCamp in December and will be held at Google's Mountain View headquarters. The event is a highly collaborative gathering that will bring together Canonical's developers and Ubuntu community contributors.

A big focus of the 9.04 release will be improving boot time and general performance. Shuttleworth also says that the developers also aim to bring tighter web integration to the desktop. Ubuntu 9.04 will be like a Jackalope, he claims, because it will be lightning fast and will converge desktop and web technologies to create a hybrid software experience.

"There are some specific goals that we need to meet in Jaunty. One of them is boot time. We want Ubuntu to boot as fast as possible—both in the standard case, and especially when it is being tailored to a specific device," he wrote. "Another goal is the blurring of web services and desktop applications."

Ubuntu has achieved unprecedented popularity in the desktop Linux ecosystem and is rapidly moving into the general consumer market. Canonical has high hopes for Ubuntu adoption on netbooks, budget computers that feature a small form factor and tie into the cloud. Dell is already shipping Ubuntu on its new mini 9 netbook and we expect to see more Ubuntu-based subnotebook products coming soon.