Get Ready for OpenStack Newton in 2016 and OpenStack Olimpic in 2017

It’s not yet official, but the names of the ‘N’ and ‘O’ OpenStack releases have been voted on and there is a (preliminary) pair of winners.

The ‘M’ Release is codenamed Mitaka and will be out in April. The M naming cycle was particularly interesting as the initial winner ‘Meiji’ was ultimately rescinded after community outcry.

For the N and O releases, there has already been an OpenStack community voting process and the initial results are now in.

The N release name winner is Newton, (which according to the OpenStack voting page is:a house listed on the National Register of Historical Places on East 9th street in Austin, Texas ). The connection is that it’s in Austin, which is where the next major OpenStack Summit is set to be held. Given the historical Apple Newton device, I suspect that the OpenStack Foundation’s lawyers will not be particularly enthusiastic about that name. The number two name choice is Nix, follow by my personal favorite Nameless in third.

For the O release which will debut in early 2017, the winning name is Olimpic, which is a nod to the Olympic stadium in Barcelona, home of the second OpenStack Summit for 2016. Given that there could be some obvious confusion with some form of Olympic endorsement here, I suspect the OpenStack Foundation lawyers will have some pause on this name as well. The second place name is Om with Ocata coming in third.

Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist