I think the year.month release numbers are very useful... if somebody says to me "I have OS-Something Version 1.5" I have absolutely NO idea whatsoever whether that release is bleeding edge or deprecated. If I read "Ubuntu 11.04" I know that is up-to-date: on the other hand, if I have somebody saying "can you help me with my Ubuntu 7.10 because it won't mount my memory stick?" I don't even have to think before saying "That's almost 4 years old, I think you might need to upgrade to a more recent release!!". No, I think the numbering system works well, and I would like to see it maintained. As for development codenames, they exist in most operating systems. As others have said, you can't create a <a href="http://YY.MM">YY.MM</a> release number until you know when it is going to go live, though with Ubuntu that's SLIGHTLY less of an issue because of the strict six-monthly release cycle. Sean