From the "where do they come up with those names" files:

Ever heard of a Jaunty Jackalope? Well now you have and you'll be hearing more in the months to come as Jaunty Jackalope is the code name for Ubuntu Linux 9.04 set for release in April of 2009.

"The Warrior Rabbit is our talisman as we move into a year where we can reasonably expect Ubuntu to ship on several million devices, to consumers who can reasonably expect the software experience to be comparable to those of the traditional big OSV's - Microsoft and Apple," Ubuntu head honcho Mark Shuttleworth said in a mailing list posting.

Shuttleworth is already laying out his vision for what the Jackalope will be all about and speed, particularly boot times is a big part of it. He's also trying to continue to do his part to blur the lines between web and desktop services. Perhaps more interesting from a development point of view is the fact that Shuttleworth is aiming to have all Jackalope development done in Ubuntu's Bazaar (BZR) code versioning system which might finally actually mean that Ubuntu development will truly be open to a wide audience.

Though Shuttleworth is keen on the Jackalope - he's got another major release first coming next month.  Ubuntu 8.10, codenamed Intrepid Ibex should be out in October.