4 ms·

Besides the business names, I am surprised to see all major operation systems don't have proper translations in chinese, including Microsoft windows, Mac OS X a

Besides the business names, I am surprised to see all major operation systems don't have proper translations in chinese, including Microsoft windows, Mac OS X and Linux. It's hard to market these products to elder people.

riobard 15y ago
Windows actually have great Chinese translations. They are not official, and some of them are really stupid (but funny!), e.g.: Windows 3.2 -> Win32 -> 瘟32 Windows 95 -> Win95 -> 瘟95 Windows XP -> XP -> 叉屁 Windows 7 -> Win7 -> 瘟7 As long as Microsoft sticks with the pattern "Windows + something short", it's fine for most people to shorten it to just "win-something short". Linux the term itself doesn't seem to have a translation, as most of Linux users seem to be able to pronounce the term in English (but they do fight over which way to pronounce the "i" sound). Various distros have official Chinese translations. Mac OS X is the most stupid one to pronounce in Chinese, and many would pronounce the "X" as |eks|, not "ten". So many Mac users prefers to just say the "Apple operating system".
- dongsheng 15y ago
  > Various distros have official Chinese translations. Debian -> 大便 Ubuntu -> 俺不土 Gentoo -> 真土
  - redcap 15y ago
    While I don't know about Chinese, in Japanese 大 means 'large' and 便 can be read as 'faeces'. So perhaps the name for Debian in Chinese is actually "big poo".
    - riobard 15y ago
      Bingo!
    - dongsheng 15y ago
      Yep, just a joke people made to laugh at the pronunciation of Debian is the same as "big poo" in chinese, but we love Debian of course ;)
  - hawflakes 15y ago
    Debian... 哈哈哈!
  - est 15y ago
    Here is a Chinese browser name: Maxthon - 马桶
- cpeterso 15y ago
  > Windows actually have great Chinese translations. They are not official, and some of them are really stupid (but funny!) Do you mind explaining what is stupid or funny about those translations for Windows? The abbreviated names are pretty standard in English. Do they mean something different in Chinese?
  - yiran 15y ago
    In Chinese, the win sound means plague... so you fill in the blank. Plague 95, Plague 98, Plague XP. XP is even funnier, X is pronounced as "Cha" and it means to insert or to penetrate. P is pronounced as "P" which means asshole in Chinese. Again you fill in the blank.

riobard 15y ago

Windows actually have great Chinese translations. They are not official, and some of them are really stupid (but funny!), e.g.: Windows 3.2 -> Win32 -> 瘟32 Windows 95 -> Win95 -> 瘟95 Windows XP -> XP -> 叉屁 Windows 7 -> Win7 -> 瘟7 As long as Microsoft sticks with the pattern "Windows + something short", it's fine for most people to shorten it to just "win-something short". Linux the term itself doesn't seem to have a translation, as most of Linux users seem to be able to pronounce the term in English (but they do fight over which way to pronounce the "i" sound). Various distros have official Chinese translations. Mac OS X is the most stupid one to pronounce in Chinese, and many would pronounce the "X" as |eks|, not "ten". So many Mac users prefers to just say the "Apple operating system".

dongsheng 15y ago
> Various distros have official Chinese translations. Debian -> 大便 Ubuntu -> 俺不土 Gentoo -> 真土
- redcap 15y ago
  While I don't know about Chinese, in Japanese 大 means 'large' and 便 can be read as 'faeces'. So perhaps the name for Debian in Chinese is actually "big poo".
  - riobard 15y ago
    Bingo!
  - dongsheng 15y ago
    Yep, just a joke people made to laugh at the pronunciation of Debian is the same as "big poo" in chinese, but we love Debian of course ;)
- hawflakes 15y ago
  Debian... 哈哈哈!
- est 15y ago
  Here is a Chinese browser name: Maxthon - 马桶
cpeterso 15y ago
> Windows actually have great Chinese translations. They are not official, and some of them are really stupid (but funny!) Do you mind explaining what is stupid or funny about those translations for Windows? The abbreviated names are pretty standard in English. Do they mean something different in Chinese?
- yiran 15y ago
  In Chinese, the win sound means plague... so you fill in the blank. Plague 95, Plague 98, Plague XP. XP is even funnier, X is pronounced as "Cha" and it means to insert or to penetrate. P is pronounced as "P" which means asshole in Chinese. Again you fill in the blank.