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What's the meaning of the numbering for different versions? Do they signify something?  

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Ubuntu follows a regular 6 month release cycle. The version numbers are formatted in Y.MM (10.04: April, 2010). Every two years there is a Long Term Support (LTS) version release which will be officially supported for two more years.

The last LTS was 8.04, the current LTS is 10.04, and the next LTS is 12.04 - the three releases between these LTS releases culminate into the next LTS, ideally viewed as "6-month baby releases piecemealing towards the next LTS".

lts

Typically after each non-LTS release a point release is made for the current LTS designed to maintain stability and backport changes keeping an LTS release 'supported' These are denoted as a third version number (10.04.[1-4]).

This chart and more information can be found on the Ubuntu Wiki: LTS article.

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up vote 18 down vote

Yes. The first number is the year the distribution was released (so 09 means 2009, obviously), and the second number is the month it was released. Therefore, the upcoming 10.10 version will be released in October 2010.

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Interestingly the next release will be released on 10/10/10 :D – txwikinger Aug 5 '10 at 19:05
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up vote 15 down vote

Additionally they also have code names usually some sort of adjective and an animal name here is a list of all the Ubuntu versions including the next one.

  • 4.10 Warty Warthog 2004-10-20
  • 5.04 Hoary Hedgehog 2005-04-08
  • 5.10 Breezy Badger 2005-10-13
  • 6.06 LTS Dapper Drake 2006-06-01
  • 6.10 Edgy Eft 2006-10-26
  • 7.04 Feisty Fawn 2007-04-19
  • 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon 2007-10-18
  • 8.04 LTS Hardy Heron 2008-04-24
  • 8.10 Intrepid Ibex 2008-10-30
  • 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope 2009-04-23
  • 9.10 Karmic Koala 2009-10-29
  • 10.04 LTS Lucid Lynx 2010-04-29
  • 10.10 Maverick Meerkat 2010-10-10
  • 11.04 Natty Narwhal 2011-04-28
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10.10.10... that's a nice date! – Mircea Chirea Aug 6 '10 at 6:30
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It's also interesting to add that from Dapper the Adjective Animal code name follows alphabetic order. – Javier Rivera Aug 6 '10 at 6:53
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...and don't forget the upcoming Point-Release 10.04.1 which summarize all the updates (and bugfixings) since the Release-Day. So you don't have to patch a new installed system with hundreds of MBytes. On August 12 2010 the 10.04.1 will be available.

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