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1 • What's in a name.. (by BILL S. on 2016-09-19 00:23:56 GMT from North America)
There are some names that do not do justice to the software or conjure a strange mental image like Gnash, Gimp, or Suck.. but hey, if it works, I'll use it and even contribute when possible.
2 • What's in a name? (by Mason on 2016-09-19 00:25:44 GMT from North America)
While I don't car what good software is named, I can see where it would be beneficial for software to be given an appropriate name. GIMP is great software, but could be troublesome to install on all the computers at a special needs school for instance. Political correctness isn't usually considered in naming small software projects, and it shouldn't. However, when you can foresee or dream that this project will become big, maybe even commercial replacement worthy (like GIMP), then you should choose a name that would be unlikely to offend potential customers/users.
3 • the poll (by Jordan on 2016-09-19 00:33:40 GMT from North America)
The name mattered to me way back when I first started using computers in the mid 90s. I thought, naively, that the name was indicative of something important.
"Windows" seemed cool, for example. Little did I know that it came to mean "A Window into our personal life to be analysed and sold to the highest bidder."
4 • What 's in a name (by billc on 2016-09-19 01:27:26 GMT from Oceania)
I miss scrotwm!
5 • Name (by argent on 2016-09-19 01:35:37 GMT from North America)
Names matter little, but prefer openbox or fluxbox wm's and enjoy creating my own menu. If the name is too long that it really messes the appearance up. Would think maybe keeping it to about 8 letters and numbers would be great, works for me that GIMP is an abbreviation.
@3 Jordan: You said more than you realize, Windows is one large Trojan designed to be an exploit of every aspect of your life.
Systend and D-Bus is the beginning of that same thing for Linux!
Yes, and by all means contribute to your favorite distribution, developer or software!
6 • Please with the names already... (by Tom Joad on 2016-09-19 01:47:52 GMT from Europe)
Who cares about the name of a piece of software or app or driver!!! What is really important is whether or not the software, app or driver performs as expected or doesn't it. Does the software, app or drives make the user happy to have installed it while appreciating its results.
I use Gimp and like it a lot. It is killer program that enhances my photos making them look even better hanging on my walls and others walls. It's name, in and of itself, doesn't make my photos better or worse.
Yes, I have called others 'gimp.' I have been called 'gimp' from time to time by others when I had a limp for one reason or another. Using that word didn't injure me and it didn't injure others either. All of us have survived nicely too not needing a pint of blood or time in a 'safe place' to be comforted with a blanket and warm milk.
Personally, I think folks should really toughed up and act like they have a 'set' too. Furthermore, I heartily encourage developers to name their creations as they will. If a few don't like the names...tough! Don't use what was created for their benefit and suffer. The masochism endured by the 8% or so who do care dearly about the name of a piece of software is its own reward me thinks.
7 • Mandrake (by bigsky on 2016-09-19 02:04:35 GMT from North America)
Mandriva Mandrake what ever. Sorry but I have given this Distro so many opportunities and have been let down so many times that in my opinion it's no longer worth the effort to give it another thought. That's my 2 cents worth ? You however might have a different opinion. Thanks
8 • K-K-K-KDE (by Ben Myers on 2016-09-19 02:28:34 GMT from North America)
I have always been very much put off by the tortured names and spellings of the various programs developed to go with the KDE desktop. Very childish.
9 • Names (by argent on 2016-09-19 02:59:10 GMT from North America)
@ 8 Ben Meyers: Never understood the reason behind what KDE did with the use of "K" but sort of vacuous with their approach. As an adult would feel embarrassed to run it.
Learned best over the years to stick with just window managers and ignore DE's!
10 • names (by linuxista on 2016-09-19 03:10:23 GMT from North America)
One of the nice things about moving from the commercially infested MS world to linux was the freedom the devs had to espouse non-commercial attitudes about naming, promoting and describing their software. How refreshing to see an honest description of a piece of software that says, "it's my first effort at an ftp gui; it doesn't do anything other clients don't already do, but it works well enough. Enjoy." Let's not kill the fun and the freedom of hobbyist projects with humorless, self-appointed, politically correct police types bullying everyone into complying with their personal crusades.
11 • What's in a name (by bigsky on 2016-09-19 04:30:10 GMT from Europe)
Pick a path and go with it and never look back. That's our choice and this is what I did 20 years ago when I dumped Microsoft for being a Microbe that would never die !!!
12 • K-K-K-KDE (by mcellius on 2016-09-19 04:50:11 GMT from North America)
I, too, have always been put off by the KDE habit of trying to give things names beginning with the letter "K". If I liked KDE enough to use it I suppose I'd put up with it, but as it is I'm just as happy not to have to endure it.
It seems like one of those things that is an attempt to be clever ("klever?"), but instead is almost insulting. Yes, I'd be embarassed to run it, too.
13 • Refracta, What's in a Name? (by Paraquat on 2016-09-19 05:08:41 GMT from Asia)
Really nice to see that Refracta is getting some attention. Very nice Devuan-based distro that can run off a USB stick. I only discovered it recently, but I'm liking it a lot.
What's in a name? Quite frankly, not much. I never understood Richard Stallman's obsession with making sure that everybody says "GNU" before they can say "Linux." More about egos than anything else. I'm far more concerned about software quality than what name gets assigned to it. I will give Stallman credit though for all the fine development work he did on Emacs...erh, GNU Emacs. Anyway, it's a superb editor (and more), still my favorite, but I couldn't care less about the name.
14 • KDE Nomenclature (by McKracken on 2016-09-19 05:18:26 GMT from North America)
I would be scandalized beyond repair if I were ever to put Konqueror or Kommander on my computer. What would the neighbors think!
15 • Naming (by Lionel_Winchester on 2016-09-19 05:48:30 GMT from North America)
Some of the names of the distributions themselves could really use better titles.
Convincing people to move to Linux isn't made any easier when you are faced with the option of whether or not to recommend something named "GuixSD" , PiSi Linux , "NuTyx" , UHU-Linux , Slacko , Xubuntu , Puppy , NetSecL / Urix , Salix , Slackel , "Gobo Linux" , Solyd XK , Plop Linux , ROSA , and / or "SliTaz" .
16 • What's in a Name? (by Alexandru on 2016-09-19 05:58:27 GMT from Europe)
The free software projects inside GNU world were given very meaningful names at early days. Perhaps the full understanding of the name sense require some hacker culture understanding too. For example, the GNU acronym is ... recursive "GNU's Not Unix". Well, the recursivity tends to hacker culture AND also GNU as a dictionary world is a meaningful name. Another example is KDE, which was created with CDE in mind (as its replacement and to be pronounced likewise), which in turn is acronym for Common Desktop Environment. Today most of original ideas behind such names is lost in software history. Most new software names are both meaningless and not based on hacker culture.
Another point is some important projects sometimes change their names when consider it necessary.
17 • 32-bit vs 64-bit performance (by Simon Wainscott-Plaistowe on 2016-09-19 06:15:42 GMT from Oceania)
Great article, sums things up nicely. Most computers these days, even the older ones, are capable of running a 64-bit OS so the only time I'd recommend a 32-bit OS is if the computer has 1GB RAM or less, in which case Peppermint Linux is a good choice IMHO.
18 • @14 (by Tran Older on 2016-09-19 06:22:54 GMT from Asia)
Your neighbours would be more worrisome had the names been Qonqueror, Qrusader, Qontact, as they are all Qt applications :-) Well, the much hated akonadi/nepomuk/strigi trio will always remain worrisome even if they change their names.
19 • What is in a name? (by Bilal on 2016-09-19 06:23:34 GMT from Asia)
I avoided using 'gigolo' due to its name.
20 • Naming (by Tony on 2016-09-19 06:25:27 GMT from Europe)
Not Linux, but I worked at a firm where after a pub lunch the engineers decided to name this phone line testing equipment..... Test a call.
If you don't get it, speak it aloud.
21 • What's In A Name? (by Just another old fart on 2016-09-19 06:32:15 GMT from North America)
Before I start, I will admit that I am "Old School" about many things. One of those things is that it is always better to be considerate of others, and I would include naming software in that. Coming up with a "cute" name that is impossible to pronounce, is in poor taste, or can be considered insulting to others is just plain bad form. There are always options that meet the needs (including "cute", if that's your poison) of software naming.
Perhaps, before getting upset about software names, one should take a look at the names given to pharmaceutical products. I suspect that there is a software package that someone developed specifically for pharmaceutical companies that uses a random number generator to pick 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 pieces of a name from nonsense syllable lists and then strings them together. Perhaps software developers should consider a similar approach. It would save them time and headaches.
22 • What's in a Name? - continuation of @16 (by Alexandru on 2016-09-19 06:33:47 GMT from Europe)
The GNU name has sense in 3 different ways:
1. GNU as acronym (GNU's Not Unix) gives technical details of what GNU is about: similar to Unix project, but not a Unix.
2. GNU as recursive acronym tends to hacker culture and says: created by hacker (and for hackers).
3. GNU as a dictionary word (the wildebeests, also called gnus or wildebai, are a genus of antelopes - see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildebeest) is a good illustration of principle "Free as in freedom".
23 • @3 & @5 (by X on 2016-09-19 06:48:27 GMT from North America)
I miss the 'World Without Windows' campaign. If only it came true.
24 • recovering_USB_flash_drive (by k on 2016-09-19 06:48:42 GMT from Europe)
@ Jesse
Under Miscellaneous news KaOS news post: "option to recover your USB stick after using it
for an ISO, something that regular dd copy or the previously used Imagewriter were not able
to do."
I am curious what "recover ... USB stick"(?) means in this post, because I mostly use dd
command according to http://www.noah.org/wiki/Dd_-_Destroyer_of_Disks for what I
consider "recovering" any USB flash -- as well as other -- drives/disks.
Thank you any advance for any comments.
25 • Naming (by Peggy on 2016-09-19 06:55:12 GMT from Europe)
Name's doesn't matter for me if the software's good.
I'm French and the problematic names aren't the same :
- LibreOffice is quiet pronounceable in french (2 french joined words)
- Before today I didn't even know that gimp has a meaning in english
- From time to time I use gigolo and make fun of it's name (go and see their explanations on their website)
- I remember a burning software called graveman (in french it's more about a man who engrave than a cemetery)
26 • A Name (by lupus on 2016-09-19 07:01:57 GMT from Europe)
Please Remember not to call your son
Peter File
(If you don´ t get this one please watch IT Crowd)
27 • Naming (by Wedge on 2016-09-19 07:11:36 GMT from Oceania)
Names are a small factor, especially if the software itself is really good, but it can be a bother at times. I remember I was turned off by the name for Monkey's Audio, which was a popular lossless audio format for a while but there were plenty of other comparable alternatives to try so that wasn't such a big deal. Even if the APE tag format derived from it is also quite popular.
28 • Names matter a little bit (by Frank on 2016-09-19 07:22:13 GMT from Europe)
A good and unique name helps a lot if you serch for help; Names that are to short or named after real things make it difficult to search
29 • @28 (by Charles on 2016-09-19 07:36:35 GMT from Europe)
Looking at you, 'Files' (aka Nautilus)!
30 • 64-bit computing (by Nicholas on 2016-09-19 08:03:39 GMT from North America)
In regards to the 64-bit vs 32-bit article, I do not believe 32 bit systems are even still commercially available outside of very few embedded applications. (pocket calculators?) You'd be hard pressed to go to any store and get a 32 bit system of any time. Even the Raspberry Pi has gone to 64-bit computing as of late. I am still running a 32 bit based server running Centos I might add. I believe most OS is deprecated for 32 bit at this point.
31 • 32bit laptops (by oldlaptoper on 2016-09-19 08:55:17 GMT from North America)
I use a old laptop that is 32bit. All I use it for is reading in bed and occasionally surfing and I still love the dependable old beast, and see no need to spend hundreds to get something of similar quality or buy dubious os e.s. windows locked atom or limited android; and questionable quality that tend to be reasonably priced. Anything needing more powerful I use a modern desktop anyway.
32 • X86 vs x86_64 vs. x32 vs... (by Technosaurus on 2016-09-19 08:58:10 GMT from North America)
These results should mention x86 with regparm=3 and the x32 abi
33 • What's in a name? (by Anthony on 2016-09-19 09:19:42 GMT from Europe)
I generally don't care too much about names, and I dislike political "correctness", but to have a software named Stalin (https://engineering.purdue.edu/~qobi/software.html) is just plain wrong. Yea, I know, it's intended as kind of a pun ("Stalin brutally optimizes"), but just imagine calling it Hitler ("Hitler brutally optimizes"). Not so much fun now, is it? This is a clear example of the insensitivity and ignorance of the "enlightened west": my country suffered both from the Third Reich and the Soviet Union, but suffered much more and much longer from the latter. The Soviet Union did far more damage to the world, yet you can make fun of it in much of the "civilized" world, but you cannot make jokes about the Third Reich.... No, names don't matter, as long as the opinion-makers say so.
34 • Rose by any other name (by SuperOscar on 2016-09-19 09:38:36 GMT from Europe)
It seems names matter mostly to users from English-speaking environments. For the rest of us, “WordPerfect” “Excel”, or “Cinnamon” sound just as funny (and sometimes funnier) than the Kryptic names of KDE etc.
I think you just have to learn to tolerate names. It’s true Finns still tend to giggle when they hear of the Nobel-prize winning poet Saint-John Perse (‘arse’ in Finnish) or the many French people named Pillu (’cunt’) but that’s the way it is, be polite, don’t giggle, and deal with it.
35 • Project Naming (by Andy Mender on 2016-09-19 10:16:15 GMT from Europe)
I think project naming has a major impact on how it [the project] is received. It appeals to me if it's witty, pleasantly sounding or tries to make a pun. Too much is too much, though ;).
36 • Names (by jymm on 2016-09-19 10:56:25 GMT from North America)
I don' t really care about names, but I do think it is kind of silly so many KDE based programs start with a K.
37 • multi-lingual names (by nolinuxguru on 2016-09-19 11:21:56 GMT from Europe)
@34 just to think that I had problems referring to the prestigious suckless.org web site!
38 • Names (by OhioJoe on 2016-09-19 12:30:43 GMT from North America)
I still have not forgiven StarTrek for changing, "To boldly go where no man has gone before" to "To boldly go where no one has gone before".
Man in this case means human and includes both sexes, but people now get offended (or pretend to) for little or no reason.
I use GIMP regularly, especially since the single window option became available. How hard is it to explain that the name is not offensive? Now I'm on my way to see a judge and get my son's name legally changed because "Johnny" offends his teacher.
39 • names don't matter to me (by dmacleo on 2016-09-19 12:41:18 GMT from North America)
names don't matter to me but I am not an easily offended coward (bet I could not use abbreviation for pusillanimous here....) who looks to be offended all the time.
40 • @38 sexism (by Jordan on 2016-09-19 12:42:46 GMT from North America)
It's about perception, OhioJoe. It's just better to scrub sexism and the perception of sexism from the language as best we can.
That helps everybody to feel equal with one another.
On topic: The name, "Korora" seems laughable to me, but is my favorite distro. I admit to shying away from distros with names like, "Parrot," "Cub," and "Peppermint."
41 • Interesting Poll Question (by cykodrone on 2016-09-19 13:18:48 GMT from North America)
I have long thought some names are a little wierd, but I also got the reasoning behind using them. I'm actually glad FOSS is different and unusual in more ways than just naming conventions, and it should stay that way. If people want to stick with over priced proprietary software that's usually loaded with spyware and bugs, that's their choice, it's also my choice to use FOSS programs with names that may not seem politically correct. The political correctness police can name software THEY write whatever vanilla and bland names they want, if they don't 'get' the eccentricity of FOSS types, that's their problem.
42 • What's in a name? (by dragonmouth on 2016-09-19 13:29:45 GMT from North America)
With hundreds of languages being spoken on this planet it is almost impossible to find an inoffensive name for software. See post #34 by SuperOscar.
Software developers would spend more time making sure that the name they chose for their application did not offend anybody than on developing the application.
43 • @40: Sexism, etc. (by dragonmouth on 2016-09-19 13:42:59 GMT from North America)
At the height of Women's Liberation movement, the activists wanted to purge the English language of "sexism" by removing/replacing all occurrences of "man". Their attempt fizzled when they decided to change words like "Manhattan" and "mandible".
BTW - Some members of the Political Correctness crowd consider the word "niggardly" to be offensive because of its racist connotations. Are we to purge the words "black" and/or "boy" from our vocabulary because they have negative connotations for a segment of our population?
44 • Silly names (by Locky Macbride on 2016-09-19 14:05:33 GMT from North America)
I don't really care about the names... I suppose a few are extra silly (PiSi, emmabuntus), but like one previous commenter pointed out, it's more important to be able to easily find help at Google using a unique name.
That being said, the biggest problem that dumb names cause me is during attempts to convince people to switch over from proprietary programs or operating systems. Most people can only focus on what's on the surface, so yeah, they go running quickly back to Photoshop as soon as I say the word gimp.
My wife uses all Adobe products for designing and I've been trying for years to introduce her to other open source options. Silly names is one of the reasons she stays put (Gimp again). She says she's happy with Indesign and has no interest in running GNindesign or some other silly thing.
45 • K names (by Doug on 2016-09-19 14:06:51 GMT from North America)
@36 I saw a post once where someone was asking about kworker in top, and was wondering why it was on there system when they had no kde programs installed.
We had to explain what kworker was.
To me, names don't really matter, I won't get offended by software developers who come up with offensive names, like gigolo with there tagline. Now, if they came up with a really offensive name, like a cuss word, I probably would just use an alternative. But, that is there choice and I made mine.
46 • KDE names (by BeGo on 2016-09-19 14:07:24 GMT from Asia)
well, "K" brand, how funny it is, define their "family" well, like "i" or "e" family. ;)
I actually consider Baloo, Plasma, Calligra, Neon, etc, Kde new names as convoluting.
47 • RE: SIlly Names (by Andy Mender on 2016-09-19 14:22:38 GMT from Europe)
I think @44 has a good point there. For commercial and advertising purposes silly names don't help anyone. KDE app names all beginning with the letter "K" make a lot of sense. They're simple, suggestive in terms of the purpose of the app and don't sound all that silly. Things like the GNOME "Pomodoro Timer" are just plain hilarious and I don't see myself being encouraged to use the tomato timer only based of its name.
Sometimes developers also overdo it with release names. I like Manjaro and Linux Mint releases. A slightly exotic female name makes for good advert material. Ubuntu release names are just dumb. I mean, Yakkety Yak? Trusty Tahr? Seriously? "I'm running a server on Xenial Xerus, the recent long-term support release from Canonical"...
48 • Names - where do I even start? (by Pikolo on 2016-09-19 14:49:20 GMT from Europe)
For me, 2 factors matter most in names:
a) uniqueness - because search results. If you are using a common word as a name, make sure you get at least to the top page in the search results(think Fedora). It's safer to create a word, or take an easily pronounced foreign word(Ubuntu)
b) simplicity. So that non native English speakers can write it easily. Sorry, I can't write emmabuntus correctly at the first attempt. NO WAY. Names made of initials are fine by me, especially if they have a meaning behind the acronym
There are 2 more factors that should be incorporated wherever possible:
c) self descriptiveness - do programming 101 if you need don't know why. PCLinuxOS, wattOS, UberStundent come to mind
d) ease of use - matters mostly in common renaming, and more for programs than distros. For example instead of searching, people say googling, or instead of editing a spreadsheet(though pronunciation is dodgy in this one), they "use Exel"(In the name of FSF, pretend you don't understand that blasphemy). Imagine saying you will duckduckgo something. No way. Names should be short enough and simple enough to make it into the common language.
There are a special cases, most prominent of which is Libre Office. I've yet to meet a person who had trouble reading that, yet few people know the word. But it's a great tool to strike up conversations explaining the difference between free software and freeware to people
And there are a few horrible examples of how NOT to name distributions. Like Peppermint, which I am using and honestly, the name is only bad thing about it. First, it's too long. Second, it does NOT pop on the first page of search results. And that is probably the reason why Linux Lite still ranks higher, despite being equal or worse in every aspect(they are 90% the same, but PM manages to use less RAM and support UEFI booting, yet LL ranks higher. Because it's name is self decriptive)
One last note: If a distro has a horrible name, yet ranks high in the PageHitRanking, it's probably really well made if it can take the "bad name" penalty and move on
49 • 32bit versus 64bit (by btroy on 2016-09-19 14:52:14 GMT from North America)
I use 64bit on nearly all of my equipment. However, I have seen several cases where running 32bit on memory constrained equipment (512 MB/1GB) can knock down memory usage considerably.
That being the case, if you are memory constrained, 32bit and a light DE like mate can get you by.
50 • test (by Tomy Young on 2016-09-19 15:21:08 GMT from North America)
Yes way, names should be short enough and simple enough to make it into the common language.
51 • Zorin 12 Beta Using Renamed Dash-To-Dock Extension: "Zorin Dash" (by joncr on 2016-09-19 15:39:09 GMT from North America)
Seems like if you use work from someone else, you ought to do them the courtesy of not labeling it your work.
52 • What's in a name? (by David on 2016-09-19 16:02:13 GMT from Europe)
As I expected, those who are troubled by "unsuitable" names seem to be North Americans. In most parts of the world, this sort of thing isn't considered anything more than amusing: think of the young Japanese who wear t-shirts with obscene English slogans. In fact, the weirder the name, the better. Try searching for "mate" on any Linux forum and you'll see what I mean.
53 • Re: @28, @48 • Names matter a little bit (by Vukota on 2016-09-19 16:05:51 GMT from Europe)
I would never recommend or not software based on the name, but honestly, if I don't know anything about the particular software, I would consider shady OS that is named TrueOS. Names should be unique enough that you can distinguish them from others and that you can "brand" software by it. It is just alright when you can see from the name what they are and what kind of licence they adhere to (like PC-BSD, Libre Office, PCLinuxOS, etc.), but it may be problematic when you search for help.
GIMP is awesome name. Unique, easy to pronounce, easy to remember, associates to GIF and "G"raphics.
54 • Calamares installer (by Manuel on 2016-09-19 16:27:35 GMT from North America)
I just wanted to point out something I read in a few reviews on various sites. Reviewers often list the only two installation options with Calamares as 1) Wipe the disc and install the operating system, 2) Install manually. That is indeed the case if you are installing on a clean system. However, if another operating system is already installed, two more options appear, namely 3) to shrink an existing partition to make some room for the new OS and 4) to choose an existing partition on which to install the new OS. Both these options make Calamares a lot friendlier for systems already in use. I can understand that for people who review a lot of distros, using a clean system or virtual machine is simpler and less risky, hence the last two options are rarely listed. I just wanted to point it out :p
55 • Software names (by fstephens on 2016-09-19 17:24:14 GMT from North America)
While I think many applications and OS's could be named better, only one really annoys me; when purists insist on "GNU/Linux" instead of just "Linux". With all due respect to RMS (and lots of respect IS due), I refuse to use it, and I certainly won't confuse a non-tech person with it.
I hate it so much I have a Greasemonkey script to change it on webpages!
56 • application names (by David Walser on 2016-09-19 17:33:31 GMT from North America)
I'm glad for KDE applications that clearly identify themselves as such by their names. GNOME applications with their generic names that don't clearly identify themselves as such drive me crazy.
As for the 32-bit thing, VMs are one area where the lower RAM usage and disk space usage of 32-bit builds makes more sense than running 64-bit builds which don't really provide any benefit.
57 • Names? Well... (by azuvix on 2016-09-19 17:42:41 GMT from North America)
If I took personal issue with names, I never would have tried Plan 9, Emacs, feh, or Clozure Common Lisp. But here I am, merrily using all of those. :P
Really though, unless you choose a name that seems to support hatred or bigotry in all their forms, any issues I have with the software probably won't involve the name.
Although I'll admit that GNU/kFreeBSD is bit of a mouthful...
58 • Names (by Morten J. Zölde-Fejér (mjjzf) on 2016-09-19 18:10:36 GMT from Europe)
I am okay with a lot of names - I think GIMP is pretty good because it is as straightforward as it is. Inkscape is good, Scribus is good. Firefox is good.
I was looking for a library that Minecraft uses and had to go looking for it again, because I could not remember: LWJGL, the Lightweight Java Game Library. The logic is there, but it doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. Claws Mail is good, but remembering I need LibEtpan to run it has me challenged.
59 • @ dragonmouth (by Jordan on 2016-09-19 18:12:53 GMT from North America)
I'm in favor of completely removing sexist and perceived sexist terms from language. It'll never happen and that's okay because idealism never happens totally. But it must be aimed for as it hurts nobody when it comes to language issues. And that's the point, it hurts nobody to take male dominant orientation out of language.
"Manhatten?" lol .. go for it girls. ;)
On-topic: Nice to see Zorin still at it. The inclusion of software to make use of Windows apps is what brings people to linux.. they'll explore and find more choices. ;)
60 • re: @52 What's in a name? (by Jeff on 2016-09-19 18:19:50 GMT from North America)
Why it comes from North Americans?
Because we're infested with the Political Correctness crowd.
They want to eliminate what they consider thought crimes by eliminating the words for the things they don't like.
(Yes, exactly like newspeak from 1984)
They confuse the map with the territory.
Most of them are quite ignorant about the origin of words and default to:
If it sounds like something that is offensive to them then it is offensive to them.
61 • What's in a name (by Roy Davies on 2016-09-19 18:22:05 GMT from Europe)
A package/app/project would be best named to indicate exactly what it does. Good communication is everything. Communication based on the concept of WYSIWYG is not a bad place to start. A package that carries an obscure name, that does little to tell the prospective user what it does is, in my opinion, a waste of my time.
62 • taking_the_he_and_she_out_of_language (by k on 2016-09-19 18:38:01 GMT from Europe)
@ 59 :"It'll never happen..."
In the Finnish language, there is only one term: hän for both sexes, no he and she.
63 • What's in a name? (by Alexis on 2016-09-19 18:40:34 GMT from Europe)
What's in a name?
A "feature story" is supposed to be a "review." Neither a "feature" or a "story" taken separately or together becomes a review, would it? Maybe that's why they are so dull.
64 • "What is in a name?" poll (by HughA on 2016-09-19 19:04:00 GMT from North America)
I'm glad someone finally, finally brought this issue up. Now I see it's not only me that's concerned about some of the ridiculous names given to software projects.
Here is the very main reason why I sometimes avoid the more goofy-sounding names:
When you're trying to explain to the boss, for example, who is not personally a Linux user, that a particular piece of open source software is not only equal to but perhaps even superior to it's expensive commercial counterpart you sooner or later have to mention the name of it.
When "LibreOffice" or "GIMP" comes out of your mouth you get a look from them like not only is that silly but perhaps YOU are somewhat silly for even suggesting something like that, that the idea is immediately dismissed.
Even in the face of saving the organization thousands and thousands of dollars in software costs.
I have a lot more to say about this topic but that example just about sums it up in a nutshell.
.
65 • Tech has history of silly names (by joncr on 2016-09-19 19:26:54 GMT from North America)
Product names should have something to do with the product unless you expect it to dominate its market, which very few do. Think Xerox and Kleenex.
Ppl here who want to be "free" to be bigots should return to Reddit and 4chan.
66 • Names don't matter (by Jose on 2016-09-19 21:44:45 GMT from North America)
What is wrong with GIMP? What about Acrobat, Java and Excel?
Neither describe what possible use the software is used for. Yet, nobody feels they are stupid names.
KDE has Kmail, Windows has Outlook. Which is the more clear?
Sure some of the KDE/Gnome names are completely out there, but so are names for many applications in every OS out there.
I do agree about the North Americans, though. Too many here are so worried about being politically correct and as a result, are boring as HELL!
67 • 32-bit vs 64-bit performance (by Andy Figueroa on 2016-09-19 22:14:20 GMT from North America)
The article completely conflated the matter of running 32-bin/64-bin operating system and hardware. That wasn't the question. As a practical matter, nobody is buying new 32-bin PC hardware.
I'm running 32-bin stable Gentoo on totally 64-bin hardware because it's a system that I first installed around 2003 and moving to 64-bin operating system means a complete install, and not worth the chase.
68 • Silly Names (by sydneyj on 2016-09-19 22:17:01 GMT from North America)
Most of the names are not a problem for me, although I do agree that Canonical's Xenial Xerus, and the like, are pretty silly. I haven't noticed any new "yet another" names lately, and I'm grateful for that.
@65 joncr I would suggest that it's the smarmy, self-righteous public moralizers who should move to another forum.
69 • Names, 32/64, &c (by Kragle von Schnitzelbank on 2016-09-19 22:19:48 GMT from North America)
Truth-in-labeling vs. MarketSpeak vs. brand/trademark?
…
Is the putsch to obsolete 32-bit hardware driven by (short-sighted) vendor interests (in short-term revenues vs. market-share/cachét)?
Won't thise eventually all seem silly when we use chips with 8, 16, 32, and 64-bit cores?
…
Nice to see Refracta joining up.
70 • 32 bit hardware phase out (by mikef90000 on 2016-09-19 23:32:23 GMT from North America)
I've had to stop using 10 y/o 32-bit hardware due to a) lack of memory upgradability, and b) lack of SSE2 instruction support (required by most modern browsers).
Another important reason to ditch old hardware is High power consumption in a high electric rate area. Recent desktop systems I've built use 1/3 the power of the above, and laptops will even do better.
71 • Names (by a on 2016-09-19 23:50:04 GMT from Europe)
It's hard enough to find good software or distros, I’m not going to add a filter based on their names!
However if the names are "Gnome Something" or "klalala" I will avoid them as the first one is most likely crap, and the second one would bring KDE as a dependency.
72 • Names and Mandriva-Mandrake (by Bobbie Sellers on 2016-09-19 23:53:16 GMT from North America)
I have been using Mandriva since 2006 and only gave it up when it refused to run on the machine I was then using about 2012, Then I tried Mandriva 2011 which could not run on my little box, So I tried out Mageia which I think is a cool name but that year's version would not install, So I went to PCLinuxOS which is too defining a name but a far earlier fork of Mandrake - Mandriva, I ran it on my new box until after about 5 years of service it died. The new box wanted a UEFI install and Mageia 4.1 was chosen and worked fine. This year PCLinuxOS 2016.03 came out and though the distribution has some problems I now use it as my main OS on this box and on my salvaged Dell E6420 and in neither box does it give me special problems, If you have to put it on a multi-boot system you will want to add some Grub2 programs like grub-customiser, and learn or figure out how to use them.
In this week's newsletter Open Mandriva is reviewed and I think what they have out is a good effort but still as the reviewer notes it seems a bit slow and rough.
I find a lot of the KDE names for the bits and pieces confusing, I have no problem with that though because I leave it to the OS to call them when needed. Some one objected to the name of Konqueror and some other applications, I guess no one objects to dealing with files with Dophin or Midnight Commander, Commander is an old name for fle managers and on Android you have a lot of different file managers using those commander names, If you think these names are bad you must not be old enough to remember the hoorah over Commodore Business Machines leading machines the VIC and a couple of others that meant rude things in other languages. The Amiga of course was not too bad since it was the friendliest computer at the time. I wonder if they ever sold in the old USSR where it might have been Tovarisch.
73 • Names matter, a lot (by Carney on 2016-09-19 23:55:39 GMT from North America)
I strongly agree that names matter greatly in easing or hindering acceptance and evangelism for free software. So do logos, mascots, icons, and other aesthetic issues.
Recursive acronyms aren't great, but they're among the lowest on my list of problems with free software nomenclature problems. The problem with GNU isn't so much what it stands for, as that gnus are ugly and that "gnu" is hard to say. By contrast, penguins, being cute, are wildly popular, "penguin" is only pronounced one way, and I think that has played a big role in "Linux" catching on while "GNU" hasn't in terms of which part of GNU/Linux won the naming war. Think if GNU were named "warthog" and Linux "ptarmigan". Warthogs are ugly but at least the word is easy to say, and ptarmigans are non-ugly polar birds but their name is hard to say. GNU combines both disadvantages in one, and Linux (with the Tux mascot) combines both advantages. I shake my head thinking of free software advocates dressed as gnus, trying to hand out disks.
I agree that OpenOffice is a far better name for the general public than LibreOffice, although I understand the free software movement's preference for terminology emphasizing user freedom and software freedom. LibreOffice sounds strange and foreign to native speakers and users of English. Usefully if unintentionally, "OpenOffice" implies to newcomers that it can open and use Microsoft Office files. I hope that with the apparently imminent demise of OpenOffice after Oracle's spiteful refusal to give the rights to the name to the Document Foundation, that the name will be picked up by the Document Foundation after all and used as the name of LibreOffice from now on, and this time without the "org" shoved onto the end.
I strongly disagree that PCLinuxOS is a bad name; to the contrary I strongly believe it is by far the best name of any Linux distro. It could not be more straightforward, clear, and normal. It's a Linux operating system for PCs. It's not Unix, Windows, or anything else. It's an operating system, not an application. And it's for PCs, not phones, tablets, or consoles. Fears that "OS" in the name is too weird are probably overblown; these days ChromeOS and especially MacOS and iOS have helped popularize and normalize the use of "OS" within an operating system name for the general public.
I also think that PCLinuxOS, especially in its standard/default KDE edition, has the most reassuringly normal look and feel of any Linux distro and is best positioned for newcomers from Windows to transition over to it. I even like its logo, except when it uses the stylized bull; I think that as a matter of branding and familiarity, Linux distro logos should always or nearly always have Tux in them, just as they should have the word "Linux" in their names.
Linux Lite is a pretty good name also. It conveys what it is, although it doesn't have OS in its name. And the feather helps with conveying its lightweight nature and goals too, although it doesn't have Tux (maybe Tux sitting on the feather would be the way to go). And the look and feel of the OS itself are well done.
I've always hated "Ubuntu" as a name. Weird, foreign. When explained, it comes across as eyeroll inducingly Politically Correct, or even a cringe-y way for Shuttleworth to pre-emptively de-toxify his being a South African of European ancestry (unnecessary - Elon Musk didn't do that with his companies and no one questions his good intentions). It also carries a taint of cheapness and inferiority, as in, "this is what poor people from backward countries use since they can't afford anything better", or "this is company or product propped up by charity and virtue signaling rather than cold hard merit." The fact that Ubuntu is in reality a major company with a serious, top quality product trusted by Google and many other top tech firms is not only not conveyed, but outright obscured.
Here's another naming own-goal: the constant use of the term "daemon" in software. I understand that its history came from a thought experiment known as Maxwell's demon, in a context that merely meant a entity doing something in the background, not the malevolent spirit of Christian belief. But given that by far the most common use of "demon" for ordinary people in Western countries is precisely such a malevolent spirit, it is unnecessarily and unwisely off-putting. Even worse, and over time, BSD Unix came to use and even celebrate imagery that specifically and indisputably referred to such malevolent spirits. FreeBSD has mascot, and an abstract logo, that clearly refers to it. PC-BSD's icons often feature flames, for which the most likely and parsimonious explanation is that it is a reference to hellfire as a callback to the demon theme of other BSD Unixes. The BSD-Unix base of MacOS X is called Darwin, whose mascot is a cartoon platypus usually depicted with a red horned hat and a red pitchfork, clearly referring to the BSD Daemon. Some depictions of Hexley, while still cartoonish, depart from the "cute" norm for a more threatening and sinister look (go to puredarwin dot org slash curious slash hexley, scroll down to the "Random Found on the Web" section and its second row.) Since Microsoft uses the far more neutral term "service" for background software, proving the utter lack of necessity of anything "daemon" related at all, all of this is completely unnecessary at best. Yes, most of the depictions are "cute"-ified, and yes the majority of people don't care and aren't affected either way, but of those who are affected, the overwhelming majority are likely to be negatively affected. It's objectively counterproductive to have a nomenclature whose overall and net effect is negative.
A similar issue is the term "Evolution" for GNOME's de facto clone of Microsoft Outlook. That name is somewhat more defensible than the previous issue, since a popular misconception of "evolution" is "improvement". Thus, "Evolution" could be defended as a term of marketing or outreach, as a way of branding GNOME's Outlook clone as an improvement over Outlook, or as improving itself constantly over time, or as improving the user's computing experience or life in one or more ways. However, in a large portion of popular opinion in the US, evolution is a deeply controversial and divisive topic. (The name "Darwin" for the fork of BSD Unix used as the basis for MacOS X also unnecessarily invokes this issue.) The fact that those who dislike it are wrong and that evolution is a scientific reality IS IRRELEVANT to the point that "Evolution" is unnecessarily divisive. Responding with defenses of evolution, deriding those who reject or distrust it, is also irrelevant to the point at hand, and in fact perfectly illustrates the unnecessarily distracting and divisive nature of the name. Since the term "Outlook" came from Microsoft's email / calendar / contacts / task client, and specifically that client's feature of a single page or window depicting that day's due tasks, calendar events, and most recent emails (thus providing an "outlook" of that day), a far better alternative name for "Evolution" would be "Overview", which is alliterative to Outlook and has a roughly similar meaning, better conveying the fact that the program in question replicates Outlook's functionality, or most of it.
74 • Name (by zephyr on 2016-09-20 01:12:14 GMT from North America)
@13 Paraquat: Have been using Refracta for a couple of years, fine distro and even better developing the base with Devuan. Fine group of folks with Refraca and contribute to the cause of a systemd-less distribution.
Names mean little to me, do however like it lightweight and needs to simply work as advertised.
Kudos to the folks at Devuan and the Dyne Org. Foundation!
75 • Names (by bigsky on 2016-09-20 01:15:44 GMT from North America)
@72 and @73 So after all that your using Linux Mint then ?? Just thought I would ask.
76 • Refracted Devuan + @13 (by kernelKurtz on 2016-09-20 02:05:21 GMT from Europe)
"I'm liking it a lot."
Damn, same here. It's got Firefox in a Firejail ready to go out of the box. The Refracta snapshotting tools. A good-looking implementation of XFCE, and no systemd ...
Installed. (I thought I was over my distrohopping addiction.)
***
A F/LOSS by any other name would smell as sweet. I don't get why mindshare and PR are so important to people. My god is fictional pasta and my religion is absurd, but they work for me--no need to proselytize or pimp it.
77 • 32-bit vs 64-bit (by cpoakes on 2016-09-20 02:44:23 GMT from North America)
As Technosaurus (@32) mentioned, there was no discussion of the x32 ABI. The x32 ABI (see Wikipedia) implements 32-bit pointers and addresses with the AMD-64 instruction set and runs faster than the x86-64 ABI on identical hardware. Operations involving pointers are faster, math operations are the same, and usable memory is limited to 4GB.
That said, xABI requires maintaining yet another repository and no distro has decided this headache is worth it. There are (or were) experimental projects at Arch, Debian, Ubuntu, and Gentoo which seem to have languished. Without a well-tested and distributed x32 ABI OS, the available 32-bit PC distros are certainly slower than 64-bit.
78 • Refracta team members? Should I trust them? (by Tin Foil Hat on 2016-09-20 06:35:04 GMT from Europe)
Who are they really? What they actually do. We know who is Barry "Puppy Linux" Kauler, therefore I trust him.
79 • @73 names matter... (by Alexis on 2016-09-20 06:55:55 GMT from Europe)
> I've always hated "Ubuntu" as a name. Weird, foreign. When explained, it comes across as eyeroll inducingly Politically Correct, or even a cringe-y way for Shuttleworth to pre-emptively de-toxify his being a South African of European ancestry. It also carries a taint of cheapness and inferiority, as in, "this is what poor people from backward countries use since they can't afford anything better", or "this is company or product propped up by charity and virtue signaling rather than cold hard merit." <
I also don't like the name Barack Obama. It also sounds foreign and cheap. It also looks like the Americans were trying to give "the poor people in Africa" something. Barack sounds like a shack, and one can see lots of shacks in the US too. I'm telling this to show that English is not the only language in the world and all names doesn't have to sound familiar to English speakers. Learn a foreign language!
Names matter, and languages matter too!
80 • names (by peer on 2016-09-20 07:30:24 GMT from Europe)
even good names needs time to get used to.
81 • KDE names (by Euler on 2016-09-20 08:27:04 GMT from Europe)
The idea that almost all kde programmes start with k is simple wrong. It might have been true for kde3, but thinks have changed. dolphin, okular and plasma do not start with k. Other projects decided to keep their k or wanted to include it.
I like names that are easy to remember and easy to spell.
82 • RE: #71 (by Pierre on 2016-09-20 10:41:27 GMT from Europe)
"However if the names are "Gnome Something" or "klalala" I will avoid them as the first one is most likely crap, and the second one would bring KDE as a dependency."
Not only is this statement a wide generalization but also not true at all.
Gnome applications can offer a quite nice piece of software, although I have to admit that it the Gnome developers do not pay much attention on the applications purpose in general but more on how this purpose can be best made to fit into the Gnome DE.
KDE applications are not able to bring in KDE as a dependence as KDE is a group of developers. A true statement would be that KDE applications are very likely to bring in dependencies on KDE libraries like the KDE Frameworks 5. Nowadays they are highly modularized, so the amount of dependencies might be much less than it used to be in the days of Plasma 4 and KDE libs 4.
83 • RE: Names matter, a lot (by Andy Mender on 2016-09-20 11:09:08 GMT from Europe)
@73,
Thank you kindly for spending the time to outline your musings. I have to say I do agree with most of them, especially the Daemon persona depiction per BSD related logos. I personally enjoy using FreeBSD to a great extent, but can see why others would be discouraged by the seemingly sinister Beastie.
Alas, I entirely disagree with the need to name a GNOME Outlook clone "Overview", especially that "Outlook" handles mostly e-mails and for that is commonly known nowadays. Looking at KDE, "Kmail" sounds like a perfectly valid and fitting name. Obviously, GNOME cannot be used "Gmail" as that is restricted to Google (duh!), but something along the lines would probably be useful.
Also, not sure why file managers have to have all of those weird and absolutely unrelated names like "Caja", "Dolphin" or "Nautilus". "Something FM" would be a lot more meaningful ("SpaceFM, PCManFM", etc.) and instantly suggests the program is a file manager. "Dolphin" might sound encouraging, but the metaphor is far too deep to be grasped at all...
84 • IAgree (by Smelly on 2016-09-20 16:45:25 GMT from Asia)
iNames iAre iDumb. KDE iS iDumb ifor iUsing K.
85 • @83 Names (by linuxista on 2016-09-20 19:26:14 GMT from North America)
I don't know about Dolphin, but Nautilus is a very descriptive name for the file manager when you take its historical default settings into account. Now that it defaults to browser mode, that association is attenuated.
As far as "Caja," which means "box" in Spanish, that is also a fairly intuitive name for a file manager as it brings up the idea of a file cabinet or file box. Since the developers who forked GNOME2 into MATE are Argentine, they get to name their apps however they wish. "FM," while it might appear to be the obvious choice, makes no sense in Spanish, so I don't see any compelling argument for forcing my sense of anglocentric entitlement on them.
86 • Choices of poll (by 99 on 2016-09-20 20:18:43 GMT from Europe)
There should be 4th option, I will explain:
I would recommend better named software if all other features being equal. For the pure pleasure of motivating the invention and creativeness, which is important both to the technological side of any project and the marketing issues as well.
87 • Names (by Jay on 2016-09-20 20:37:13 GMT from North America)
@6: While it sounds good in theory to name things whatever you feel like, it doesn't change the fact that some names are better chosen than others. There are limits.
I'm in a professional environment, and we're all adults, but talking about jsf*ck without sounding like I'm dropping f-bombs everywhere is just hard. You get reactions you shouldn't have to deal with, and you're not particularly "cool" either for seeing how you can use crude language in a professional (read: higher than the gutter) environment.
That's probably the worst example I can think of, which sucks as a name of something really clever. DSL (the Linux distro) was another one. Again, what am I saying about the community, and how do I convince people this stuff is better, when I start out by rubbing them the wrong way?
88 • whatis in a name (by unknown on 2016-09-21 05:48:52 GMT from North America)
When I first started with linux around 2011, even linux troubled me because i didn't know how to say it ( 'lynn-ucks' vs 'line-ucks' ) even though i had experience with unix back in '82 and am sensitive to european names and pronunciations. I got over it.
GIMP seemed strange as it wasn't intuitive from a naming stanpoint until I learned about the acronym and what it stood for, then it was clear as mud and it makes perfect sense. Thought the sensitive side of me still shirks a littIe, I got over it.
"k" programs do seem silly to me in many ways, but i do like how they more clearly demarcate connection to the kde desktop. What i like about them most, given that i prefer the MATE desktop, is that somewhere I saw it mentioned to stay away from 'k' programs as they install all the default kde dependencies and make my otherwise light and responsive MATE desktop bloated, slow, and buggy, especially on some older equipment I use. Their naming convention is perfect: it helps me to avoid installing kde programs by mistake.
MATE is a name that isn't intuitive to what it does. It does not clearly indicate a desktop environment. While I do like how it celebrates the region where it originated, and think it is important to pay tribute to what the author(s) consider important, it was strange to me at first. Did it stop me from using it? NO. I use it and like it a lot.
So, does what's in a name matter? Maybe. Will a name prevent me from using a program? Maybe.
89 • software names (by Mark D on 2016-09-21 14:26:12 GMT from Europe)
Back in the 80s a friend showed me a piece of software called ArgAsm. I think it was some kind of assembly code language (I'm not a programmer).
Just imagine trying to introduce such a name now!
90 • What's in a name. (by Dietz on 2016-09-21 17:50:46 GMT from North America)
Who cares what it's called. If it works nicely, I use it. The point here is that the author can call their program/app whatever they wish. If you find it offensive then don't use it. Your loss. There are city streets throughout the world with names the would curl the hair on a sailor but are perfectly proper in that city or country. The Pinto (automobile) in some countries became a laughing stock because 'pinto' in those countries is slang for 'small penis'. In this global society we're in now we need to learn to go with what's there. The logistics of changing every name to be politically correct worldwide is beyond doable.
91 • ARGAsm (by FOSSilizing Dinosaur on 2016-09-22 00:07:28 GMT from North America)
Blast-from-the-past roots going back to Early 3D wire-frame vectors StarGlider (novella-included) Retro(video)Gamer coding, in the days of Radio_Shack's TRS-80, Sinclair's BBC, and Amiga's Commodore_64.
Assembler and machine coding making bare metal dance.
…
Wow. Thanks!
92 • Most. Boring. Topic. Evah. (by Arch Watcher 402563 on 2016-09-22 02:20:23 GMT from North America)
With Granny and Bubba demographics involved, name means brand. With just us, it's bikeshedding.
93 • 32 bit vs 64 bit (by argent on 2016-09-22 07:43:49 GMT from North America)
Kudos to Jessie Smith comments on performance and architecture. Went to 64 bit only because it was new, and honestly believe 32 bit would be gone in 5 or so years. Found the article very enlightening.
As long as someone likes it and it performs well, all power to them. Noticed the increase of developers quitting the 32 bit project in increasing numbers, so have a some concern for the folks holding on probably for many reasons.
Thanks again!
94 • 32-bit_vs_64-bit_crunch_time_for_global population_and_e-waste_explosion (by k on 2016-09-22 08:54:09 GMT from North America)
@ Jesse
"At this point the only reason to stick with 32-bit processors is probably financial."
Jesse, really?
According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population :
" As of August 2016, it was estimated at 7.4 billion. The United Nations estimates it will further increase to 11.2 billion in the year 2100."
According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recycling#E-waste_recycling :
"E-waste is a growing problem, accounting for 20-50 million metric tons of global waste per year according to the EPA. It is also the fastest growing waste stream in the EU."
95 • 32-bit: time to leave the update race (by curious on 2016-09-22 09:14:20 GMT from Europe)
Since more and more developers are stopping support for 32-bit systems, making running them with <variable>-edge software near impossible except for supergeeks, those who don't want to trash perfectly functioning hardware are left with only very few options:
- Become a supergeek, continue to run these systems as you like, supporting everything yourself.
- Use one of a very limited and further dwindling choice of distros, regardless of whether it fits your needs.
- Stop the update-rat-race and continue to use something stable that works.
Many will tell you that the last option is bad, because your text editor MUST BE the latest, most "modern", most resource hungry version - everything else is insecure, bad and just not geeky enough.
As long as you are behind a firewall, don't enable unnecessary system services, don't indiscriminately open dubious e-mail attachments and -gasp!- occasionally disconnect from the internet, the last option surely is the most relaxing. Show everybody that regressions are uncool and actually working, proven software is much better than the newest <variable>-edge alpha- or beta-software.
96 • 64/32/… (by Kragle on 2016-09-22 16:50:42 GMT from North America)
My impression has been that the 64-bit "advantage" over 32-bit depends entirely on the specifics of a particular application. Benchmark results consistently demonstrate this - that's the only consistency they've shown, especially on Phoronix.
97 • Efficiency (by RollMeAway on 2016-09-22 19:26:56 GMT from North America)
So, that 7-bit ASCII character you just typed on your new machine, takes up 64-bits of memory.
On my machines each char. takes 32-bit of memory. Half as wasteful.
But, you have 8 GB ram, so don't be concerned about efficiency, type away!
98 • What is in a name & Refracta (by HacksawRidge on 2016-09-23 09:07:11 GMT from North America)
I prefer to have good "snappy" names, when reccommending software to people.
Refracta, looks very interesting and willing to give it a test, once the 64bit version is released.
99 • Names (by The Bard on 2016-09-23 13:32:13 GMT from North America)
"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet."
100 • Opinion Poll: What's in a name? (by Chris on 2016-09-23 16:58:55 GMT from North America)
I can think of one I would never recommend based on name: Hannah Montana Linux! I have no idea if it's any good, but the name alone makes me want to run away from it! lol
101 • Hannah (by Doug on 2016-09-23 18:41:14 GMT from North America)
I can't believe it exists.
http://hannahmontana.sourceforge.net/
There is a FAQ at the bottom that explains why he made HML.
102 • Distro names (by Jordan on 2016-09-23 20:22:26 GMT from North America)
Both distros I have as defaults on two different machines have names I really like very much: Manjaro and Korora.
Once installed to hard drive and tested, the same way I'd test a disro with a "nice" name such as Netrunner or Mageia, the names meant nothing; both Manjaro and Korora are about functionality and ongoing support (one a rolling release and the other LTS).
To me PCLinuxOS is the best distro with a rediculous name but I can't use it for various reasons not the least of which is the strange attitude of the support forum participants.
103 • It it ain't broke, don't fix it, and (by RollMeAway on 2016-09-24 01:15:11 GMT from North America)
If something breaks, I always try to fix it. If it cannot be fixed, then I trash it, and buy something new.
Years ago, a joke phrase for cars was: The rich man had to buy a new car,
his ashtray was full.
This "way of life" is why I still use 32-bit systems.
Bottom line is, what can I do with an new 64-bit system, that I cannot do now, on a 32-bit system?
As the establishment companies, and understaffed one man show distros, drop support for 32-bit, my selection of distros decreases. What a shame.
I am not going to trash systems that work well, and needlessly spend hundreds or thousands of dollars for new systems, that do what I can already do.
104 • Names, Brand-names & Marketing (by Greg Zeng on 2016-09-24 07:51:53 GMT from Oceania)
The comments here seem to me to reflect the overall users of Distrowatch: unaware of the bigger computer markets, and international matters. Some brands are ethnic-named: "Mageia". Others are hobbyists-only: "Puppy", or "my-hero-figure" for ego-publishers.
Product-naming, like Funding, Marketing, code-cutting, etc ... Are very solid, well-established professions. Well-paid for the in-demand professionals who devote their working specialities to these work areas. Excellent product naming shows business sense and planning. It seems that much of Linux-creation is mainly for amateurs, imho.
105 • name (by Mac on 2016-09-24 17:24:14 GMT from North America)
I will not use siduction on account of the name. And like the distro!
have fun mack
106 • name (by argent on 2016-09-25 00:08:26 GMT from North America)
Siduction for a distribution is an awesome name, it clearly represents a Debian sid (unstable) kernel. Can't find anything wrong with that although unstable can be a little risky at times. It is a cutting edge distro!
The rest of the name is a common Latin suffix attached to many European words.
Sid is also mention in the book "Toy Story", also a childs movie by Pixar! Incidentally Debian names it's releases from characters from "Toy Story". From Rex 1.2 in 1996 all the way to Jessie 8.6. in 2016.
Don't know, can't see any negative link to Siduction, just it being an awesome distro, great forum too!
Don't care about the name, if I like it and it does the job I'm gonna use it!
107 • Wake Me When the Meeting Starts (by Arch Watcher 402563 on 2016-09-25 01:33:14 GMT from North America)
@Greg (104) I know folks in the ad biz (NYC and LA). FOSS can barely afford web hosting, never mind brand accounts. If you volunteer in the FOSS spirit, the great unwashed will beat a path to your door. In the meantime they can roll dice like an ad exec:
https://www.startpage.com/do/search?q=random+product+name+generator
"English word roots...are then fed into a computer, which puts them together in all possible combinations. Bachrach and his henchmen then pick out the [best] manufactured word..."
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1988-03-10/topic/0020330004_1_integra-acura-honda-people
FOSS can crowdsource cultural/linguistic checks and even focus groups, once it learns how to poll outside geekdom.
108 • 64-bit (by William Purkis on 2016-09-25 10:07:45 GMT from Europe)
As usual, RollMeAway talks a lot of good sense. The 64-bit only people should hang their heads in shame.
Number of Comments: 108
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GeckoLinux is a Linux spin based on the openSUSE distribution, with a focus on polish and out-of-the-box usability on the desktop. The distribution features many desktop editions which can be installed from live discs. Some patent encumbered open source software is included in GeckoLinux which is not available in the default installation of openSUSE. Special attention has been given to the quality of the font rendering. GeckoLinux provides two main editions, Static (which is based on openSUSE Leap) and Rolling (based on openSUSE Tumbleweed).
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