[openbeos-cdt] Re: About the names

  • From: "Stuart McCoy" <stubear@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <openbeos-cdt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2002 12:54:54 -0400

I would like to hold off posting a list to the community just yet.
Designing by committee is not an easy thing.  Expanding that committee from
10 to 10,000 would be utterly absurd and counterproductive.  Let me spare
you the time and effort.  Some people will like option a, some will like
option b, and yet others will like option c.  Those who like a will not like
b or c, those who like b will not like a or c and those who like c will not
like either a or b.  There will be some who have mixed feelings about the
other choices they did not think were the best (a might think b is a good
idea but doesn't like the actual name itself).  Nothing will be decided
because there will be no one individual whose voice is more important than
the others (unlike design by committee for a large corporation.  At least
there's a boss who can magically turn his single vote into 50 votes).  We
will once again begin reconsidering names and the cycle will begin anew.

The best approach is for this group to discuss names and create a short list
to pass along to the team leads to decide.  They will have the best interest
of the BeOS community on their minds when they make a choice.  If you want
to use friends who use BeOS or those in the BeOS community to make
suggestions, fine, but I don't want to turn it into a BeOS community vote if
we don't absolutely have to.

I also agree with your comment that we need to stop picking names at random.
I know that the couple of evenings that I have planned IRC sessions haven't
gone over well, mostly for technical reasons but I had hoped there might
have been a few more people at the one the other day.  I'm going to try once
more Tuesday, April 16th at 8pm EST, to have a brainstorming session on IRC
(irc.openprojects.net, #obos-cdt).  I think this is the best approach as it
allows everyone to discuss what BeOS is in real-time, without the lag of
this mailing list.  Think about what BeOS is, what we want to say about the
OS to those who use it and relate these concepts to names or a naming
convention.

-----Original Message-----
From: openbeos-cdt-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:openbeos-cdt-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Jace
Sent: Thursday, April 11, 2002 12:31 PM
To: openbeos-cdt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [openbeos-cdt] Re: About the names



All very good points.  I think we should indeed poll the community.  Can we=
 set up a forum somewhere on a prominant BeOS site that we can ask the comm=
unity to tell us what BeOS is to them?  Ask them to submit names and words =
that remind them of what BeOS is?  Let's get some brainstorming from the co=
mmunity.

Oh, and personally, I have to ask that we veto "Olga" since that name is of=
ten associated (in the USA) with "ugly" things/people.  Sorry :)  I am also=
 not too fond of "Jaffa" as the name, personally.

-Jace

On 2002-04-11 at 04:55:21 [-0400], Kristof Polleunis aka BeAdingo wrote:
>
> Guys,
>
> I had a look at the log but I must say there wasn't a
> name that caught my attention really.
>
> The more I think of it the more I believe we should
> avoid "OS" in the name (although I had many *OS in my
> names-list myself).  We should go for a short name
> that describes what obos is or will be, what it stands
> for.  Simple names are the best, look at SUN, APPLE,
> WINDOWS (I know I should write Microsoft here), all
> plain simple english names.  Doesn't have to be
> english though but simple yes.
>
> I kinda liked the "Jaffa" name, sounds nice and I can
> imagine an orange as symbol, but it sounds a bit like
> java.  And if you want to be in line with SUN or
> APPLE, the computer should be an ORANGE which runs on
> JAFFE, like "SOL"-ARIS on SUN.  Unfortunately ORANGE
> is a TM it's a mobile phone operator in Europe.
>
> I think we should go for something simple like fruit-
> or animal- or foreign short names, like "Tui" or
> something Japanese as suggested, but I think it should
> more or less say something of the OS or the community.
>
>
> So if people agree on avoiding the ending in "OS" we
> could already set some limitations making the
> choosing-process easier.  For example I would also
> like to exclude agressive and too geeky names or long
> names, since this has a negative effect on the
> perception of the system by the public. Let us at
> least agree on the fact that the name (if it has a
> meaning) should have a positive one.
>
> I believe we should continue this way by excluding
> stuff.  Maybe you can come up with some more
> exclusions thus making the selection-process so much
> easier.  Maybe Stuart can combine these into one list.
>
>
> Along with this we could choose some words, properties
> which describe our new OS, for example friendly, fast,
> stable... etc.  The limitations + the descriptions
> will make us think along the same lines looking for a
> name .
>
> And instead of limiting your creativity it actually
> forces you to be more creative within these limits.
>
> This is how professional branding companies work, I've
> been involved in this process (as I'm a webdesigner)
> for our company and the people who created our brand
> brainstormed just like we do but not at random, first
> they did a detailed study of what our company stood
> for,  how people saw our company, how we wanted to
> evolve ...etc.
>
> If we keep on producing names at random we are
> operating in the very same way as we did before with
> our artwork.  And I believe I don't have to explain
> you that this brought us no step further towards our
> goal.
>
> Something to think about.
>
>
> Kristof aka BeAdingo
>
> --- Eckard Riedenklau <eckard.riedenklau@xxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Stuart McCoy" <stubear@xxxxxxxxx>
> > To: <openbeos-cdt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > Sent: Wednesday, April 10, 2002 12:17 PM
> > Subject: [openbeos-cdt] Re: Where is everyone
> >
> >
> > > I forgot to save the log but the just of the
> > conversation began leaning
> > > towards these few ideas and names.
> >
> > Well, I did...
> >
> > > 1) Jaffa.  It's a variety of orange. (get it?
> > Apple/Macintosh?)  Anyway,
> > > it's an idea.
> > > 2) NucleOS
> > > 3) something related to the starfish or octopus
> > (think nautical or marine
> > > life)
> > > 4) something astronomy related.
> > > 5) the work I've done on the UI has gone under the
> > names Terra(the look)
> > and
> > > Magma(the  underlying functionality).  Some sort
> > of elemental name (earth,
> > > wind, fire, air) might work as well.
> >
> > Here is the log for those who are interested. I hope
> > I don't blow your
> > mailbox.
> > May be I'm outing myself as a bad English speaker by
> > doing this *g*...
> >
> > ---8<--- snip --->8---
> >
> > <Jace-CDT> Okay, Garfield82, here are some
> > brainstorm words: Enlightenment,
> > Transcendence, Eternity, Helix, NexOS, Eye of
> > Harmony, Event One,
> > <stubear> Two names suggested so far have been Jaffa
> > (a variety of Orange)
> > and NucleOS
> > <Jace-CDT> I personally like Japanese words... do
> > you think there's a
> > possiblity of that working?  Example: Genki was a
> > popular codename for BeOS
> > unrealsed version R5 I think.
> > <Jace-CDT> Genki means "well" or "all is well" or
> > "healthy"
> > <stubear> Write them up with their definitions.
> > Sadly I don't speak
> > Japanese.
> > <Jace-CDT> I'm only up on a few vocab words and a
> > few Kana... so I don't
> > speak it yet either.  Plan to, though.
> > <Garfield82> i've got problems with enlightenment
> > and Event One so far:
> >
> > <Garfield82> Wasn't Enlightenment a dsektop for
> > linux?
> >
> > <Garfield82> What do you mean with Event One?
> >
> > <Jace-CDT> Enlightenment... yeah, that is a Linux
> > thing... oh well.  Event
> > One is a sort of scifi slang for the big bang.
> > <Jace-CDT> Usagi =3D bunny
> > <Jace-CDT> Hachi=3Dbee
> > <Jace-CDT> (the a sounds more british like ah
> > instead of american nasal a,
> > btw)
> > <stubear> yes, Enlightenment is a desktop manager
> > for Linux.UNIX
> > <Garfield82> *g*
> >
> > <Garfield82> Hachi sounds like the german word for
> > the thing you do before
> > someone else says "blesse you"
> >
> > <Jace-CDT> heh heh
> > <stubear> Reminds me of Bacci(sp?) ball.
> > <Garfield82> don't know what you mean.
> >
> > <Jace-CDT> Kinen=3Dmonumenal
> > <Jace-CDT> monumental
> > <stubear> I should have said sounds like
> > <Garfield82> i think it's a game ;)
> >
> > <stubear> Perhaps we should be asking, what is BeOS?
> > <Jace-CDT> BeOS is igaku, the science of restoring
> > health to the computer
> > industry
> > <Garfield82> an os? - just kidding.
> >
> > * stubear slaps Garfield82 around a bit with Tux,
> > the Linux Penguin
> > <Jace-CDT> (the i in Japanese is pronounced like a
> > double e in english)
> > <Garfield82> (the same in german)
> >
> > <Garfield82> (i =3D i)
> >
> > <stubear> oops, sorry about Tux there.  I'll have to
> > find out where you can
> > set things like that in Besirc
> > <Jace-CDT> Fushigi=3Dmysterious
> > <Jace-CDT> FushigiOS the mysterious OS
> > <Garfield82> I don=C4t think that BeOS is misterious.
> >
> > <Garfield82> is it?
> >
> > <Jace-CDT> Yeah, I guess Windows is more
> > mysterious... in the horror film
> > style.
> > <Jace-CDT> "What's it doing??"
> > <Garfield82> *lol*
> >
> > <stubear> Actually I don't think Windows is
> > mysterious at all, but that's
> > neither here nor there  :)
> > <Jace-CDT> "Persuasion"
> > <Jace-CDT> What BeOS is to me: "The potential to
> > make computers what they
> > should be: useful tools that do what you want and
> > expect.  Also the
> > rebuilding of a formerly anti-consumer industry."
> > <Jace-CDT> Right now, there is no computer that
> > works like it really ought
> > to.  BeOS was always the closest thing to that
> > potential, in my mind.
> > <Jace-CDT> Simple, just plain works, all that.
> > <Garfield82> Why not collect those sentences and
> > build an acronym of them?
> >
> > <Jace-CDT> hmm.
> > <Jace-CDT> PTBWTSB... nah, that doesn't work.
> > <stubear> Simple is good.  Any associations with
> > simple that aren't
> > derogatory (i.e. plain)?
> > <Jace-CDT> "vanilla"
> > <Garfield82> *g* like the "wine" guys did for
> > example
> >
> > <Jace-CDT> Singular (used by cell phone co)
> > <Garfield82> "handy"
> >
> > <Jace-CDT> BINAPOC: Beos Is Not A Piece Of Crap...
> > that's not helpful.
> > <Garfield82> ..but nice#
> >
> > <Garfield82> (in a way)
> >
> > <Jace-CDT> Tanjunsa=3Dsimplicity
> > <Jace-CDT> sobokusa
> > <Garfield82> why don't we just browse through a
> > dictionary?
> >
> > <Jace-CDT> Uta =3D act of singing
> > <Garfield82> thats the way for BeOS
> >
> > <Jace-CDT> That's a good thing to do.
> > <stubear> I'm doing that as we speak  :)
> > <Jace-CDT> That's what I'm doing with Japanese
> > <Garfield82> shall i say "stop" by browsing?
> >
> > <Jace-CDT> Silhouette (shiruetto)
> > <Jace-CDT> Stop?
> > <Garfield82> while you browse through the dictionay
> > i say sotp and you stop
> > on that page. the word you have could be a new name
> >
> > <stubear> Sorry, multimedia dictionary (Encarta).
> > <Garfield82> ehh...
> >
> > <Garfield82> i ment the way like jean-louis did...
> >
> > <Garfield82> you know?
> >
> > <stubear> I did discover that Be is also a city in
> > Vietnam
> > <Jace-CDT> Millennium
> > <stubear> Taken - Windows ME (Millennium Edition)
> > <Garfield82> do you know how the name "BeOS" was
> > invented?
> >
> > <Jace-CDT> Ah...the bastards
> > <Jace-CDT> I don't even think of it that way... just
> > as ME
> > <Jace-CDT> as in EniMe
> > <Jace-CDT> EniMy
> > <stubear> Garfield,  no and I could find nothing
> > about it in the Be
> > Newsletter archives either  :(
> > <Garfield82> i just looked it up. interested?
> >
> > <stubear> sure
> > <Garfield82> ok. a little story (it's true):
> >
> > <Garfield82> Jean-Louis Gass=E9e was looking for a
> > name for his new OS. He
> > browsed through a dictionary and fell asleep...
> >
> > <Garfield82> he told the people that he slept in at
> > the letter "b" and
> > everybody understood "be"
> >
> > <Garfield82> so the name was "BeOS"
> >
> > <Garfield82> that's it (in a was).
> >
> > <Garfield82> basically it was found by accident.
> >
> > <Garfield82> (i ment "in a way" not "was")
> >
> > <Jace-CDT> and they realized it was a very widely
> > used word that would lend
> > itself to much friendly adoption
> > <stubear> hmmmm....Are you suggesting we all take a
> > nap?  Sleep on it so to
> > speak?  ;)
> > <Garfield82> the story is true. i read it in the
> > only german print magazine
> > "InsideBeOS"
> >
> > <Jace-CDT> my dictionary sucks.  X Y and Z are all
> > on one page!
> > <Garfield82> i just "stopped" (that's what i meant)
> > at the "k"
> >
> > <Garfield82> would lead to "kos" or "chaos"
> >
> > <Garfield82> what do you think of "isos" (thinking
> > of isis)
> >
> > <stubear> I think it's WAY too obscure, and I've
> > even been to Egypt to the
> > Temple of Isis
> > <Jace-CDT> It might demand an acronym too
> > <Garfield82> well could also be "is" according to
> > "be"
> >
> > <Jace-CDT> "Is is a great OS"  nah...
> > <Garfield82> just "IsOS"
> >
> > <Jace-CDT> I think that would be harder to explain
> > than Be has been...v;)
> > <stubear> Personally I would like to steer away from
> > the -OS suffix if I
> > could.  I think it's clear that this is an OS.  A
> > direction we might
> > consider is something similar to Apple or Sun.
> > Apple named their OS after a
> > variety of Apple (McIntosh, Apple misspelled it),
> > and Sun after another term
> > for the sun, Sol...
> > <Jace-CDT> :)
> > <Jace-CDT> I like Sol
> > <Jace-CDT> VirtuOS, Unity, UbiquitOS, Dawn, Tribe,
> > Trion, Trio
> > <Jace-CDT> I was working on those before you said to
> > avoid OS
> > <stubear> That was the thinking behind Jaffa.  It's
> > a variety of an orange.
> > I was thinking along the likes of Terra, Magma or
> > some other elemental name.
> > <stubear> fire, water, earth, air.
> > <stubear> Aqua has been taken.
> > <Jace-CDT> Mikan is a Japanese tangerine
> > <Jace-CDT> Of course, no one would pronounce it
> > right...
> > <Garfield82> i just looked out of my window and saw
> > a box(tree)
> >
> > <Jace-CDT> except the Japanese
> > <Jace-CDT> Orchid
> > <Garfield82> java was inteded to be called Ork
> >
> > <Jace-CDT> hah
> > <stubear> I believe Java was codenamed Oak.
> > <Garfield82> oh. sorry i ment this. was just a
> > misstype...
> >
> > <stubear> Funny you should mention orchid.  Vanilla
> > is a type of orchid and
> > I believe there was mention of it earlier.
> > Unfortunately my encyclopedia
> > search didn't turn up anything interesting
> > concerning either.
> > <Jace-CDT> Vanilla is an Orchid? Cool!
> > <Jace-CDT> Sun really has a great name/logo combo.
> > I have to say.
> > <stubear> It's a climbing orchid.  I saw them all
> > over the Seychelle
> > Islands.
> > <stubear> I think the idea behind the name Sun was
> > their concept of the thin
> > client, "the network is the OS" strategy.  Again,
> > this begs the question,
> > what is BeOS?  Is it the server behind the thin
> > clients like Sun (I know it
> > isn't but this is the direcitonthis should take)?
> > <Jace-CDT> BeOS is like a team.
> > <Garfield82> what about "Culcita", "Oraster" or
> > "Fromia"? these are names of
> > starfishes
> >
> > <Jace-CDT> A team of components working in
> > harmonious tandem to do things
> > for you
> > <Garfield82> a starfish could be a symbolc
> > commections between the members
> > of a team
> >
> > <Jace-CDT> I've been using "NUMA" for my new
> > computer architechture I've
> > been writing.  What do you think of that?
> > <Garfield82> what is behind this? is ist an acronym?
> >
> > <Jace-CDT> It's a bad acronym.
> > <Jace-CDT> New Useful Machine Atchitecture
> > <Garfield82> well, BeOS ist not quite new, i think
> >
> > <Jace-CDT> The idea was "this architechture will
> > replace all the old useless
> > junk that's been crawling along, rotting for
> > decades."
> > <stubear> I like the starfsh concept but I
> > discovered that the japanese have
> > something against the image of a starfish.
> > According to Adobe, the splash
> > screen of Photoshop v6.0 was annoying to the
> > Japanese because of the
> > starfish image and it has been replaced (it would
> > have been anyway) in v7.0.
> > I'll look into it, but I really like the concept.
> > <Garfield82> why don't japanese like the starfish?
> >
> > <Jace-CDT> That's interesting.  I do know that the
> > Japanese are a number one
> > target for BeOS because their culture embrases new
> > technology
> > <stubear> I didn't see an explanaiton, just a
> > comment by one of the
> > programmers that the japanses market wasn't big on
> > the starfish image.  I'll
> > shoot him an e-mail and see what the explanaiton
> > was.
> > <Garfield82> "(sea) anemone"
> >
> > <Garfield82> or "Actinia"
> >
> > <Jace-CDT> Amber
> > <stubear> Asteroidea - class starfish are in
> > <Garfield82> "Apogon"
> >
> > <Jace-CDT> Does anyone here know a lot of Astronomy
> > names?
> > <stubear> such as?
> > <Garfield82> not yet
> >
> > <Jace-CDT> Andante =3D in music, with slow graceful
> > movement.  I guess slow is
> > bad...
> > <Garfield82> I'm actually browsing through my
> > dictionary of "fishtank
> > fishes" *g*
> >
> > <Jace-CDT> forget that.
> > <Garfield82> "Ornatus" means decorated.
> >
> > <Garfield82> "Pulcher" =3D beautiful
> >
> > <Garfield82> "Mysis"
> >
> > <Jace-CDT> Quantum Mechanics is a hip source for
> > names... any favorite words
> > there?
> > <Jace-CDT> Oasis
> > <Garfield82> hmm.. don't like quantum mechanics.
> >
> > <Garfield82> it's kinda theoretical. BeOS isn't
> >
> > <Jace-CDT> OBOS is... hah hah
> > <Jace-CDT> Ikaido is a Japanese flower
> > <Jace-CDT> Kai: found in several languages.  In
> > Japanese: seashell,
> > shellfish, meeting, conference, party, gathering,
> > association
> > <Jace-CDT> also the name of a dead assassin in Lexx
> > <stubear> I've got a list of keywords and names
> > started here.  I'm going to
> > give these some more thought later.
> >
> >
>
>
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