It seems to be a law of nature - everything is cuter in Japan. And It's strange but somehow it makes life just a little bit better to be surrounded by that cuteness. You can just tell that the cuteness wants no harm in the world to anyone. (Yeah I know it's a biological thing - cute things look like babies and so on.)

Just look at the fiery Firefox fox who on his travels to Japan transformed from a stylistic logo into a huggable fluffy ball of cuteness. With some mandatory cherry flower petals on the top.

If you like him as much as I do you can even build your very own version of him:

Ubuntu is a great Linux distribution in many ways. Every six months a new version is released and every new version needs a name. The code names of versions is just a small detail and you can ask yourself 'what's in a name?'. But giving them names of animals in more or less weird moods makes them stick into memory so that's a smart move if you ask me. With a little help from Wikipedia and Thesaurus.com, here they are - all the Ubuntu animals so far:

Warty Warthog (4.10)
I just can't help but love animals that are this ugly. But thinking that warthogs would be wartier than any other animal seems to be a prejudice as they got their name from having four wart like tusks on their head and nothing else.



Hoary Hedgehog (5.04)
The hedgehog, one of the favorite animals of gaming besides turtles, raccoons and lemmings. A hoary one is probably grey with age as is this version of Ubuntu is by now.


Breezy Badger (5.10)
I wonder when I will be able to think of badgers without my brain automatically going: 'Badger, badger, badger, badger, badger....' in an infinite loop. Perhaps the answer is never, and that's a little sad. A breezy badger is full of life and got the wind in his hair, I guess.



Dapper Drake (6.06)
This one might come as a disappointment if you like me associate drake with something dragon like or at least perhaps lizard like. A drake is in fact a male duck and if he's dapper he is smartly dressed in his best suit. I almost regret looking this one up, there's nothing wrong with ducks but dragons beat everything else - that's just the way it is.

Edgy Eft (6.10)
Apparently many newts spend a period of their lives as efts, living mainly on land. Newts are small usually brightly colored salamanders. Hopefully we'll see "newt" in another Ubuntu code name as it has a good sound to it too. How about Nerdy Newt? No?
To be edgy is to be nervous and impatient but also on the edge and the idea is that this version contains more of the new but unstable stuff than the one with the duck in the fancy clothes.

Feisty Fawn (7.04)
A fawn is a baby deer and cute all the way. But a feisty fawn is not only cute but spunky too and I guess you pretty much have to be to be able to stand up on those long legs 20 minutes after being born. Feisty fawn is to be released on the 19th of April. Like they would say in Japan: please look forward to it! I do.