In a surprise upset, the Fedora Project has chosen "Verne" for Fedora 16's release name, beating out Beefy Miracle — despite strong support from former Fedora Project Leaders Paul Frields and Max Spevack.

Despite Spevack's promise to organize a wiener roast at Southeast LinuxFest 2011 and wear a hotdog hat, the vote came in with Verne ahead of Beefy Miracle by 542 votes. (Fedora uses range voting, rather than a simple majority voting system for release names.)

To be frank, I don't relish reporting this at all. The Beefy Miracle movement, if I may call it that, had a lot of momentum behind it — something that's a good boost for any FOSS project. Verne may be a more "respectable" codename (after Jules Verne) but did it have its own Fedora Respin? I don't think so. A full fledged campaign and Facebook page? t-shirts? Nope.

But majority rules, and they've voted for Verne. Beefy Miracle supporters will have to settle for second, though perhaps it will make a comeback someday. Other rejected names for the release include Omoto (Okinawa's tallest mountain), and Nepia (after George Nepia — a New Zealand athlete). Fedora release names are suggested by the community and must have a novel "is-a" connection to the prior release name.

Fedora 15, codenamed Lovelock, should be out in May.