Animals and operating system names must go hand-in-hand. Or maybe paw-on-mouse. Apple is on this whole big cat code name kick for the various builds of OS X. It’s caused them a bit of a headache — Apple fans appear to enjoy parsing every single word from the corporation. The latest version of OS X is Snow Leopard. The one just before it was Leopard. That prompted some people to say that the newest version is more of a service pack than an evolutionary step.

But the Linux distribution called Ubuntu doesn’t have that problem. Each build of Ubuntu bears the name of a different species of animal (coupled with an alliterative adjective). The first build was Warty Warthog. After that came Hoary Hedgehog and Breezy Badger. Next was Dapper Drake and from that point on the builds arrived in sequential alphabetical order.

The current distribution is Jaunty Jackalope. PC Pro reports that the successor to Jackalope, Karmic Koala, is in the final alpha build stage. Next will come a beta test and — assuming everything works the way it should — a release of the final build will come some time in October.