A little correction :P "Amiga" is not a japanese word. It's the female form for "friend" in spanish. Just that. I understand the reasons why we should wait, so i have nothing to say, that's why i've been out of the mail trends. debro ----- Original Message ----- From: "Rob Jones" <senojbor@xxxxxxxxxxx> To: <openbeos-cdt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Saturday, May 11, 2002 1:33 PM Subject: [openbeos-cdt] Re: Names > > Some thoughts on the problem of choosing an OS name. > No real ideas to present, just mulling over the issues > and thinking about what has already been used. > The two most common small computer systems are > Macintosh and Windows. Windows uses the name of a > feature of the interface with which all users will be > familiar but Macintosh has no obvious meaning or > relevance. However, it shortens nicely to Mac and this > has been widely used as a prefix (MacWatzit, > MacDoodah) which has helped with the fanatisism > associated with it (I speak as a Mac user). > Then there was "Next", which I suppose was > "forward-looking", but it did not last long. > Then there have been some using "OS", notably IBMs > OS2, which never caught on and BeOS, which has had a > secure and enthusiastic "niche" usership but not been > widespread. > Then there has been Amiga and Atari - almost any > Japanese or Chinese word tends to sound good to > English speakers ears, whether it has appropriate > meaning or not. > There is Sun and Solaris which are fine, simple, > positive sounding and a bit "obvious". > Then there are all those UNIX things with names that > are meaningless, difficult to say and not very > inspiring - IRIX, xFree86, etc - and then Linux, > mixing UNIX with that blokes name. > Most of these names have no relevant meaning except > for "Windows". > Most of the obvious useable names have already been > copyrighted, trademarked, used as domain names or are > "associated" in some way with something. Whatever we > decide on there will be a possibility of some plonker > trying to make a legal issue of it. > Finding something that simply has a ring to it might > be best, even if it is "meaningless". > > ===== > regards > Rob > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Everything you'll ever need on one web page > from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts > http://uk.my.yahoo.com > >