Oompa Loompa Doompadee Doo...

[Franko]

Can anyone please explain why all these various operating systems these days have such stupid and ridiculous names that make half of them sound like something a tribesman in the deepest darkest jungle would chant while boiling the latest missionary who happened to wander by...  :confused:

I mean what's with...

Haiku (sound like someone choking on something)...
Linux (is that a fabled animal like a unicorn or a big cat)...
Darwin (thought that was a person)...
Java (is that a volcano or summit)...
Symbian (sounds like a race of people from Lord Of The Rings)...
Ubuntu (A tribal chant)...
Debian (sound like something a posh victorian family would have called their son)...
Koppix (is that a picture of Liverpool FCs football stadium)...
Jazmyn (a German porn star by the sounds of it)...

The list goes on and on, who the frig gives these things such silly names and why... :rolleyes:

Heck even Amiga.org is now classed as a Free Operating System... :lol:

http://www.freebyte.com/operatingsystems/#unix

Why, Oh Why, Oh Why...

[A4000_Mad]

As soon as I saw the title I knew it was you :lol:

I'll now go and read what you have said above

[tone007]

Linux (is that a fabled animal like a unicorn or a big cat)...

I'll take the easy one, the guy who created it or whatever named it after himself. (Linus Torvalds)

[Karlos]

Just to be a pedant, Knoppix, Ubuntu and Debian* are all distributions of just one OS, namely Linux and Java isn't an OS.

*more to the point, Knoppix and Ubuntu are in themselves derivatives of the Debian distribution.

[Nostalgiac]

ah... but for a short while, there was such a thing as JavaOS - I even have a JavaStation on which its runs

Tom UK

PS:  not that it was any good, thats a different story
PS2: Java itself... is just plain good

[Franko]

Apart from Tones answer, it still doesn't answer the question about why folk give these OS's such silly names. At least WorkBench, MorphOS and (dare I say it) Windows actually means something and make a bit of sense, I just can't figure out why whomever decides then names think that they must come up with some totally absurd titles

(and googling for it doesn't help either, hmmm... google now there's another stupid name...

[motrucker]

Just to be a pedant, Knoppix, Ubuntu and Debian* are all distributions of just one OS, namely Linux and Java isn't an OS.

*more to the point, Knoppix and Ubuntu are in themselves derivatives of the Debian distribution.

I never in this world thought I would say this to you... but.... Don't bet on Java not being an OS. I have a copy of the pile of **** that a friendly hacker left on my computer.

[Piru]

I'll take the easy one, the guy who created it or whatever named it after himself. (Linus Torvalds)

Actually Linus named it Freax.

Being a typical modest finn he would have never named it after himself. It was his friend who uploaded the first version to the Helsinki university FTP that renamed it (or rather he created a directory called 'linux' for Linus). Linus was actually quite pissed off but the new name stuck.

[motrucker]

Apart from Tones answer, it still doesn't answer the question about why folk give these OS's such silly names. At least WorkBench, MorphOS and (dare I say it) Windows actually means something and make a bit of sense, I just can't figure out why whomever decides then names think that they must come up with some totally absurd titles

(and googling for it doesn't help either, hmmm... google now there's another stupid name...

This all just show a huge lack of imagination.

[Kesa]

The name Google isn't that bad in fact i kinda like it

But the one name i really hate is Yahoo! It is the lamest name ever! :madashell:

That is the reason Google became so popular anyway. I remember when Yahoo!  and Google were battling it out and Yahoo! just suddenly vanished. The  only difference between the 2 was the name.

PS i also hate Google Chrome

[Franko]

Actually Linus named it Freax.

Being a typical modest finn he would have never named it after himself. It was his friend who uploaded the first version to the Helsinki university FTP that renamed it (or rather he created a directory called 'linux' for Linus). Linus was actually quite pissed off but the new name stuck.

Ah... at least that explains that one (still silly though)...

Can't say I've ever met a modest Finn, the only one I ever met sounded like the chef from the muppets so it's kinda hard to tell if she was being modest or not...

[minator]

Can anyone please explain why all these various operating systems these days have such stupid and ridiculous names that make half of them sound like something a tribesman in the deepest darkest jungle would chant while boiling the latest missionary who happened to wander by...  :confused:

I'll try...

Haiku (sound like someone choking on something)...

Haiku is a remake of BeOS. It's named after the Japanese poetry that was used in BeOS error messages.

Linux (is that a fabled animal like a unicorn or a big cat)...

LINus unIX

Darwin (thought that was a person)...

Probably named after said person

Java (is that a volcano or summit)...

Maybe it was the type of coffee they were drinking at the time?

Symbian (sounds like a race of people from Lord Of The Rings)...

It was previously called EPOC but changed after they wanted to make it a mobile phone OS.  Probably something to do with symbiosis

Ubuntu (A tribal chant)...

Not too far wrong: It's an ancient African word, meaning "humanity to others"

Debian (sound like something a posh victorian family would have called their son)...

IIRC it's from Debora - Ian

The list goes on and on, who the frig gives these things such silly names and why... :rolleyes:

Because these days you have to pick a name that is unique to get a good web domain.

[Franko]

@ minator

Some good answers there...

Guess I'll need to find something else now to criticise and grumble about...

(Hmmm... just a thought... the silly names folk give themselves on forums... )

[ElPolloDiabl]

Just to add: I think 'Java' was picked out of a hat when they needed to name it. Ubuntu is because the sponsor is South African.

[Khephren]

Like a lot of brands, computer OS's use made up names so they can copyright them.