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The branding here I think is a big issue. The name "Rocky Linux" sounds too homebrew and unprofessional. CentOS sounds Enterprise-ish. I find it hard to beli
by nasalgoat 6y ago
The branding here I think is a big issue. The name "Rocky Linux" sounds too homebrew and unprofessional. CentOS sounds Enterprise-ish. I find it hard to believe any corporate client would take it seriously.
- 1-6 6y agoYou can get far with bad branding. Case: Ubuntu
- tokai 6y agoor java
- jolmg 6y agoWhy is Ubuntu bad branding? Seems short, memorable, good meaning, original, etc.
- colesantiago 6y agothe naming makes it sound like unstable version of linux.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- joana035 6y agoUbuntu is a Nguni Bantu term meaning "humanity". It is often translated as "I am because we are", or "humanity towards others", or in Zulu "umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu" or in Xhosa, "umntu ngumntu ngabantu" but is often used in a more philosophical sense to mean "the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity" Taken from https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_philosophy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_philosophy But yes, Ubuntu is based on Debian's Unstable branch.
- jolmg 6y agoWhen they replied, what I originally had written was "Why is it bad branding?". I thought it would be obvious from the parent comment that I was talking about Ubuntu, but I think they thought I was talking about "Rocky Linux".
- nasalgoat 6y agoI suppose it seems like a juvenile name to me.
- cgb223 6y agoUbuntu doesn’t literally mean “a bumpy ride” or “a relationship that’s got some trouble in it”
- smnrchrds 6y agoOh, that's what you thought of! I was confused as why people take offence at Rocky. As a Calgarian, the first thing I thought of was Rocky Mountains. Due to their proximity, you see the name is so many things and places here. For example, the area surrounding Calgary is called Rocky View County.
- _jal 6y agoI think only monolingual English speaker feel this way.
- tremon 6y agoUbuntu doesn't seem a bad word choice to me: https://historyplex.com/ubuntu-african-philosophy https://historyplex.com/ubuntu-african-philosophy Ubuntu, a Bantu word, defines what it means to be truly human.
- shawnz 6y agoI actually think CentOS sounds pretty unprofessional (although familiar), while Rocky Linux sounds unfamiliar although at least has a meaningful inspiration. I would bet it could come to be equally as esteemed as a product called "CentOS" (or even "Red Hat") eventually.
- nasalgoat 6y agoCentOS is Community Enterprise OS. Enterprise is right in the name. I just imagine going to the big boss and saying, "We're moving to Rocky Linux" is going to be a tougher sell based on the somewhat juvenile nature of someone's first name with a Y on the end of it.
- _jal 6y agoIf your "big boss" chooses infrastructure by the name, it is time for a new company.
- nasalgoat 6y agoLots of decisions are made for arbitrary and, frankly, obtuse reasons. Often on a whim. I would just like to give the new distro the best chance to succeed. Clearly I seem to be in the minority, however. I guess time will tell.
- shawnz 6y agoTrue, but is that really such an advantage? Consider telling the big boss: "We're moving to CentOS, but don't worry, the 'ent' actually stands for Enterprise". And regardless I am not really sure how I feel about the professionalism of backronyms in general.
- Teckla 6y agoCentOS is Community Enterprise OS. Enterprise is right in the name. "Enterprise" isn't right in the name. "ent" is. Until a few weeks ago, I didn't know what the "Cent" part of "CentOS" meant, mostly because I didn't care. I somewhat assumed it meant the same as "penny". Rocky Linux actually sounds good to me. Like a solid, rocky foundation on which to build your house.
- paul_f 6y agoI've never had to explain why we use GoDaddy as our domain registrar. I don't think Rocky Linux will be a problem.
- kevin_thibedeau 6y agoThe registrar who used Christian values as an excuse to deny registrants and then turned around and ran ads with salacious content.
- jjice 6y agoUnrelated to the conversation of naming.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- lock-free 6y agoIf I've learned anything from cloud services, it's that product names mean nothing.
- 1-6 6y agoLike Snowflake?
- Karunamon 6y agoOr CockroachDB
- mulmen 6y agoIt is as resilient as cockroaches? I don’t see the problem. Postgres uses an elephant as a mascot because “elephants don't forget”. What’s the difference? We are literally on the web. Look out for spiders!
- Karunamon 6y agoI agree, don't get me wrong. But look up every single thread on CockroachDB to hit HN, and there's an inevitable subthread of people whinging about the name.
- mulmen 6y agoI always associated that with a snowflake schema. Seems like a good, simple, descriptive name.
- Aperocky 6y agoThe name sounds perfectly fine to me.
- varbhat 6y ago"Thinking back to early CentOS days... My cofounder was Rocky McGaugh. He is no longer with us, so as a H/T to him, who never got to see the success that CentOS came to be, I introduce to you...Rocky Linux" — Gregory Kurtzer, Founder of Rocky Linux and Co-founder of CentOS It's written in Repo's README
- asutekku 6y agoNo matter how good the intentions are, the name is pretty bad.
- bigbubba 6y agoThat is your subjective opinion, one lots of people in this thread happen to disagree with.
- phoronixrly 6y agoThey should rename it to something like zpermutator.io GNU/Linux. I swear, this thread is peak HN with this name bikeshedding.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- _jal 6y agoRight, just how like corporations would never take a company called 'Google' seriously. Ignore the peanut gallery, it is a fine name.
- rovr138 6y agothey couldn't even fix they typo!
- stan_rogers 6y agoGoogol.com was older, and in the early days of Google featured a prominent "you're probably looking for these guys, not this site" on their front page. (It was, at the time, a math site dedicated mostly to the number.)
- nobody9999 6y ago>The branding here I think is a big issue. The name "Rocky Linux" sounds too homebrew and unprofessional. CentOS sounds Enterprise-ish. I find it hard to believe any corporate client would take it seriously. That seems a pretty specious argument for not using a product. Especially since the name was used to honor one of the founders of CentoS who is now dead. That seems like a pretty good reason for a name to me. What's more, I'd be more concerned about functionality than a name. But that's just me.
- lisper 6y agoIf Duck Duck Go hasn't been destroyed by its silly name I can't imagine "Rocky Linux" being an issue.
- asutekku 6y agoI'm quite sure some users have not adopted DDG because of the name. "I'm just going to duckduck the [search term]" does not roll that well from the tongue when compared to "I'm just going to google the [search term]". Google for most does not mean the word googlplex, but duck for sure refers to the bird.
- moonbug 6y agoyou do the work, you get to pick the name.
- DoreenMichele 6y agoWould PetrOS work better for you as a serious name?
- TMWNN 6y ago>The branding here I think is a big issue. The name "Rocky Linux" sounds too homebrew and unprofessional. CentOS sounds Enterprise-ish. I find it hard to believe any corporate client would take it seriously. I agree. I mean, who would take something called "Red Hat" seriously?
- bigbubba 6y agoThe only reason you think 'Rocky Linux' sounds unprofessional is because you are unaccustomed to hearing it in a professional context. Before I read where the name came from, I assumed it was named after the mountain range. Would that really be so strange, considering CPUs get named after lakes or MacOS releases named after cats or regions of California?
- pmarin 6y agoI remember when the BSD mascot was too demonic for some cultures. , , /( )` \ \___ / | /- _ `-/ ' (/\/ \ \ /\ / / | ` \ O O ) / | `-^--'`< ' (_.) _ ) / `.___/` / `-----' / <----. __ / __ \ <----|====O)))==) \) /==== <----' `--' `.__,' \ | | \ / ______( (_ / \______ (FL) ,' ,-----' | \ `--{__________) \/ "Berkeley Unix Daemon"
- hnarn 6y agoThe reputation behind a name is earned, not given. CentOS sounds fine to you because it’s been around for years and years and has built a solid reputation, it didn’t become what it was because of a “good name”. I don’t care if the distro is called Bubblegum Naruto as long as it’s stable and reliable.
- numpad0 6y agoCentOS sounds amateur enough to me, and besides, that’s only a problem for cheap businesses that take CentOS as RHEL with a piracy waiver. Go pay for RHEL if you are looking for something professional.
- whytaka 6y agoThe biggest public company in the world is named after a fruit.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]