I tried to RTFA but no info, and Google won't be much of help with a common word like that.

The ex-Ximian part of Novell consistently used/uses monkeys and monkey-related project names (Bonobo, Mono, Evolution, etc). I wonder if there is, consciencely or unconsciencely, some message to the Novell folks: the monkey-named version is after all going to be the first version with an official Gnewsense-like flavour:

The Glossy Gnu will nonetheless play a role in this next release, because Ubuntu 7.10 will feature a new flavour - as yet unnamed - which takes an ultra-orthodox view of licensing: no firmware, drivers, imagery, sounds, applications, or other content which do not include full source materials and come with full rights of modification, remixing and redistribution. There should be no more conservative home, for those who demand a super-strict interpretation of the "free" in free software. This work will be done in collaboration with the folks behind Gnewsense.

I know I'm probably looking way too deep into something as playful as a name choice. The thought just occured.

If you like me have been confused about stuff like DRI, Mesa, GLX Extensions and so on in logs and conf files when trying to get OpenGL drivers working under Linux, I recommend How Xgl works [homelinux.net].

And they're all primates. Maybe the next Ubuntu will be code-named "Happy Human"? :)

Sometimes I wish Linux developers would drop the whole "new release every X months" model and start putting more effort into the individual versions. Case in point? Edgy Eft and sound. Lots of people are having a really hard time getting Creative sound cards to work, and the main solution requires compiling your own drivers (which is acceptable in Linux but not if it is to be mainstream) and possilby reinstalling Gnome or KDE. I know it isn't the developers responsibility to write drivers, but why is it ok for them to overlook the most common sound card brand, especially when it worked flawlessly in 6.06? Maybe if they weren't working on 45 future versions of their product at once they could get things to work properly for Gods sake.