FreeLists / openbeos / [openbeos] Re: OBOS new name

[Kevin Czapla <czapla@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Yes...

Oboe: 
Open-source BeOS-compatible Operating Environment

"Oboe" is an exquisite name. It has been suggested by several, presumably
independent parties at this point.

Many have complained on this listserve and elsewhere that none of the names
(whether on the "Official 15" candidates list or on any of the extant
"renegade" lists) is so appealing prima facie that it is irresistible and
self-evidently correct as a choice. I understand this complaint. On the
other hand, for me personally no candidate name has come closer to having
this kind of immediate appeal than "Oboe". (Perhaps it is because "Oboe" has
both its creative connotations, and phonemes that echo "BeOS" without being
so similar as to become susceptible to plausible charges of infringement.)

For what it's worth, I think that several of the names on the official slate
are also excellent: Auros, Nova, Infinity, and Indigo are all excellent
monikers, in my opinion.

Still I can't resist committing the cardinal sin of suggesting additional
prohibitively-late-arriving names myself, if only to add to the list of
names that might have been (but will not be):

ApexOS ("Built for the Apex Operating System")

LightspeedOS ("Built for the Lightspeed Operating System")

BlueskyOS ("Built for the Bluesky Operating System")

I can hear the declarations of newly-converted zealots: "I got fed up and
dumped Windows last night and switched over to Lightspeed..." (Or Apex. Or
Bluesky.)

By "suggesting" names at this late hour, I do not intend to imply that the
official naming process that is already underway should be undermined or
subverted by means of some sort of grassroots user upheaval (as if such a
thing were even feasible). I could not begin to claim any authority within
such a revolution within the revolution, having just discovered only two
months ago that there is such a thing (or was such a thing) as the Be
Operating System. I am about as new a newbie as a newbie could be. But I am
already captivated by this BeOS thing, and delighted to discover that there
is a community of enthusiasts devoted to its rebirth and further growth.
It's fast, smooth, fun, and beautiful, and I'm speaking only of the user
experience of R5 Professional, not of anything that is yet to come out of
current efforts. I find the software inspiring, I find the community
inspiring -- instinctively -- and so I can't help but be inspired to chime
in with these few would-be names. (I excuse my present sin with the
following logic: I was precluded from contributing to the original pool of
3300 candidate names by virtue of fate and timing, which conspired in such a
way that I did not even know of the existence of BeOS and its hopeful
successors when the members of that candidate pool were solicited from the
community at large.)

And now I find myself dreaming of learning to program -- quickly, quickly!
-- so that I can make a *real* contribution to this project...

As an "outsider" who wishes he were an insider, as a mere computer user who
wants everyone to have a choice of an operating system that works as an
operating system should work, I wish the OpenBeOS project every possible
success. I'm convinced that the world needs the thing that you are building
right now, whichever name the world may eventually use when singing its
praises...

Czeslaw Czapla
czapla@xxxxxxxxxxxx

"Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will."
                                                Antonio Gramsci



> From: Jeffery Thompson <ninthwave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Reply-To: openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Date: 02 Nov 2002 22:45:15 +0000
> To: "'openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx'" <openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [openbeos] Re: OBOS new name
> 
> Open BeOS
> 
> Oboe
> 
> Open Be Operating Environment?
> 
> Searches don't see it taken.
> 
> 
> On Mon, 2002-10-28 at 16:45, John Tegen wrote:
>> $0.02
>> 
>> Menlos  (Menlo Park + OS)
>> 
>> -- John
>> 
> 
> 
>