> -----Original Message-----
> From: tclug-list-bounces at mn-linux.org
> [mailto:tclug-list-bounces at mn-linux.org]On Behalf Of Mike Miller
> Sent: Tuesday, June 29, 2010 5:25 PM
> To: TCLUG Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [tclug-list] What distros do you no longer use?
>
>
> On Tue, 29 Jun 2010, Dan Rue wrote:
>
> > On Tue, Jun 29, 2010 at 01:45:15PM -0500, Mike Miller wrote:
> >
> >> We're talking here about someone who said he won't use Ubuntu because
> >> the name sounds silly to him.  He might have been joking, but
> it didn't
> >> look like it to me.
> >
> > If names don't matter, why have you and us collectively spent so much
> > time arguing about our own namesake?
> >
> >
> http://shadowknight.real-time.com/pipermail/tclug-list/2008-Octobe
> r/055072.html
>
>
> It's not that names don't matter, and that's not what I said.  It's that
> the name of a thing is nowhere near as important as what the thing is.
> Names like "Debian" or "Ubuntu" don't tell us much about the
> distro and so
> they shouldn't play much of a role in our choice of which to use.  I'm
> talking about the sound of the name here.  Peanut Linux is small,
> I think,
> so that's a good name that tells us something about the distro.  If I
> thought the word "Debian" sounded silly, should I look for a different
> distro to use?
>
> The GNU/Linux v Linux controversy seems to be highly emotional.  I think
> that GNU/Linux does a better job of describing the thing that you're
> getting when you install some GNU/Linux or Linux distro.  GNU programs
> like "ls" (written by Richard M. Stallman and David MacKenzie)
> are hard to
> live without.  That's why I think GNU/Linux is a better name than Linux,
> but I don't want to argue that point again.  I wouldn't decide not to use
> any kind of software because the name sounded funny.  I might not use a
> distro if the authors strongly opposed calling it a GNU/Linux distro, but
> that would be a political decision, not one based on the sound of a word.
>
> Mike


Language perspective, not argument:  The old German WWI word for a military
tank was "schutzengrabenabwehrvernichtungskraftfahrwagen".  That was a
Guiness record for word length.  Is there any wonder why it wasn't long
before people more often used "tank".  Even Germans often used a shorter
term "panzerauto" by WWII.  I'm among those that prefer the shorter term
Linux and find GNU adequately embedded, as are Torvald, open source
operating system, etc.


Chuck