As a recent convert. What the fuck are these names ? LET ME OPEN UP SCRUNGLE and use it to JINX my DOLPHIN. I get that they are trying to be witty but sometimes less is more.

  • peeonyou [he/him]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    edit-2
    4 days ago

    sure, that’s totally a valid point. many services are born from a start-up that was at one point a person who just came up with a name, but often though when trying to sell something you want the name of the thing to be catchy or memorable.

    when you’re writing free software it tends to have more of a personal meaning to you and you might not care so much if anyone else likes it or can even pronounce it

    • Owl [he/him]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      4 days ago

      Free software also tends to last a lot longer than proprietary software* and that means you get an absurd cross section of every goofy naming trend in the last several decades. So you’ve got your abbreviations with your acronyms with your hacker cultures with your overconfidently naming it the most generic thing possibles with your unrelated nouns with your nonsense toy names.

      *Well, most projects die immediately, same as with proprietary. But at the long tail there are 40 year old programs still kicking

      • lilypad [pup/pup's, it/its]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        3 days ago

        40 year old programs still kicking

        Look, emacs sucks. Any emacs user will tell you that it sucks. Its just that its the best thing we have ever encountered. We’ve searched for better programs, and they all come up short. Emacs is just the best thing out there. Would be a lot better with proper stewardship tho…