Users familiar with the wildly popular distribution have long been accustomed to its twice-a-year updates, marked with names starting with successive letters of the alphabet. Version 10.10 released last month, for example, is "Maverick Meerkat," while version 11.04--due in April--will be dubbed "Natty Narwhal."

Soon, however, such updates may become a ongoing phenomenon.

'In the Next Five Years'

Ubuntu founder and CEO Mark Shuttleworth reportedly said during a conference call last month that a move to daily updates would help the Linux distribution "keep pace with an increasingly complex software and platform ecosystem as Ubuntu goes on more devices and syncs up Android and iPhones," the Register .

"Today we have a six-month release cycle," Shuttleworth reportedly said. "In an Internet-oriented world, we need to be able to release something every day. That's an area we will put a lot of work into in the next five years."