Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth revealed today that Ubuntu 11.04 will be codenamed Neutered Nudibranch Natty Narwhal. In a blog entry, he described the reasoning behind the codename and discussed some of the features that are planned for the release.

Ubuntu is developed on a time-based six-month release cycle. There are two new versions every year, which typically arrive in October and April. The version number is derived from the year and the approximate month of the planned release date. Each version has a development codename that consists of an animal name preceded by an adjective that starts with the same letter. The names follow an alphabetically ordered sequence. In many cases, a future version is referred to by its letter prior to the disclosure of the intended codename.

Development on Natty will start shortly after the release of Ubuntu 10.10, codenamed Maverick Meerkat, which is expected in October. According to the Natty release schedule draft, feature freeze is expected to occur on February 24 and the official release is planned for April 28. There will be five alpha releases and one beta release prior to the final official release.

In late October, Canonical will host an Ubuntu Developer Summit in Florida at which blueprints for the Natty development cycle will be formulated with the help of upstream contributors and the broader Ubuntu community.

Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has put a lot of effort during the current development cycle into its Unity project, which is developing a lightweight environment for instant-on computing and netbook form-factor devices. Canonical is also working to integrate support for multitouch technology and gesture-based interaction into the mobile user experience.

Shuttleworth says that ARM compatibility, design refinement, and improved support for graphics hardware are important priorities for the 11.04 release. This seems to suggest that Canonical's focus on smartbooks and mobile computing will continue to grow in 2011.

According to Shuttleworth, the narwhal was selected as the codename for this release due to its similarities to the unicorn. The narwhal is an aquatic mammal that typically has a single horn-like tusk. It is a member of the Monodontidae family, which also includes the Beluga. Experts agree that narwhals are awesome and that unicorns no longer exist because the narwhals defeated them in an epic battle.

Listing image by Narwhal cartoon by Wonchop and Weebl