this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2024
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Linux
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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I love the Linux world's tradition of less serious names, in general.
I guess when the OS is free, you don't need to get the marketing people involved as much.
The kernel was almost named Freax. Then there's GNU, Slackware, KDE which was originally the Kool Desktop Environment, The GIMP (released 1 year after Pulp Fiction), ...
It's often due to the devs creating it as a hobby project and giving it a light-hearted name to show it's nothing professional or important - and then it becomes important later.
My favorite right now is RebeccaBlackOS, which is the only current distro built around Wayland's reference compositor Weston, showcasing all the capabilities Wayland has.
Unlike Hannah Montana Linux, it has no Rebecca Black theming at all. It's just called that because the dev is a fan of hers.
It made me wince when Android did away with its dessert based codenames and now they're just 'Android 12' etc. It really went corporate after that direction.
And please tell me RebeccaBlackOS shows a cool popup or console message every Friday.
They didn't:
They stopped using the codenames in marketing, but they are still there.
Happy to be corrected. But I still wish they were used prominently as it used to be before.
Did you know that kernel releases have codenames?
My favourite being 4.0: "Hurr durr I'ma sheep" because I remember taking part in that poll.
Thanks for that laugh!
Which stands for 'GNU is not Unix'. Also 'less' (which is more). Pine is(was) Program for Internet News and Email and the FOSS fork is 'Alpine' or 'Alternatively Licensed Program for Internet News and Email'. And there's a ton more of wordplays and other more or less fun stuff on how/why things are named like they are.
WINE Is Not an Emulator
i like the names they're cute, i just wish they would attach vesion numbers to the names in official docs because it is a specific hell trying to figure out what release is what version without having a master look up table to consult.
Isn't KDE "Kommon Desktop Environment" in reference to CDE "Common Desktop Environment" ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KDE
(TIL the creator of KDE studied at the same university as me!)
So cool! Thank you for your reply! ~~Do you know him personally?~~ (nevermind, I missed the TIL) I have so much good things to say about this project from my noob perspective. I wish I could contribute some day!
Kinda like the Minds in Iain Banks's Culture universe.