You can now vote for what new name you want OpenBeos to be called.
OpenBeos Announces Voting on New Name
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
Eugenia said: “Zita (or Zeta) is how we call the Z letter in our alphabet.”…..
And doesn’t that letter mean or stand for “freedom”? I remember in college seeing the Greek film “Z”. A truly great film. Way off topic 🙂
If I could vote for “OBOS”, it would be it, now I had to vote for lame name like Jaffa (fruit brand, for oranges) etc..and “Begin”, hello, maybe you guys should stick to programmin and not marketing =).. (Includeed suggesting names).
Well the _?_ will be a great OS that Iam sure about!
Good luck!
/Konrad
..these 15 were far too few, couldn’t they have sorted out 50 names or something, and let everyone pick 10, then have another round with the 5 most chosen ones. Would be much more democratic, and wouldn’t require as much work from the obos theme, sorting them out.
Hopefully everyone will learn something from this.
Whatever name wins I’m sure we’ll get used to it though.
Now, if the kernel team could report some progress…
>And doesn’t that letter mean or stand for “freedom”?
Nope. It is just the letter of the alphabet, or as “Zito” means “hurrah”. The only way you can assosiate it with freedom is only as “Zito” (“hurrah”), which is when people get to the streets to celebrate the freedom from an enemy (like from the Germans in ’40s), or when your political party has won the elections (yes, Greek people get to the streets to celebrate that :o)
But the word letter Z or the Zeta/Zita is not directly assosiated with freedom.
“Maui”
It’s the internal codename Be used for R5.
Hmmm, perhaps that’s why YellowTab chose “Zeta”.
Why not choose the nordic name Bifrost.
http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~cherryne/myth.cgi/Bifrost.html?term=bi…
>> how many stupid names are there? IBM, HP, Compaq, SGI, KFC, Levis, BMW, Ford, GM, CNN, iD, Atari, BeOS etc. Face it, there are heaps of crappy names which have grown on us, so we dont think of them as crappy anymore.
Real good names (instantly catchy) are Amiga, Plan9, Honda, Ferarri, Pepsi etc. They are mysterious and simply roll off the tongue … melodic, like in an Opera (another great name BTW) or a sonete. I chose Nova, Nemo, Menlo, Indigo and Infinity.
<<
How is IBM, BMW, or Ford a dumb name compaired to the ones you like. Internation Business Machines – Still as true today as it was at the start. Bavarian Motor works – Thats a great sounding name. Ford, so Ford is dumb and Honda isn’t. Honda would have probably never exsisted had it not been for ford. also it was a ford that inspired him to start his company. I agree that there is companies out there with dumb names. Some with out right stupid names you have to make fun of. But it’s still varies on what you like. Though our first three picks are the same, though I had menlo first. That one just stood out to me. It has that connection to Be and is short like all good names should be, though not the ideal 4 letter name. BeOS, Ford, Nike, Sony…… I think many people submited menlo for consideration, i think i did even. Like many i think a pre-elemination round would have been nice. But also it’s their project. If you want your name go write and OS and name it. The sad part is this will all get done and decided and the perfect name will come to someone the next day that everyone would have wanted. Oh well maybe things will go perfect the next time the public gets to name an OS. Maybe have a nameless OS, just call it OS or The OS. Then there would be no name fights, or a whole lot of them.
Here is my take on a few possibilities:
We were also in the process of developing a name for a new product and had generated a multi-thousand name list. These are a couple of names from that list that might be fitting to the BeOS.
(I know its too late, but hey, better late than never)
-Bismuth: Sounds strong, contains “Be” and “Smooth” and it is a element of the perioding table. Bismuth is the most diamagnetic of all metals (i.e., it exhibits the greatest opposition to being magnetized) and has the lowest thermal conductivity of all metals except mercury.
-Tungsten : Another chemical element with a strong name.
-Carbide-B : Implies strength (in terms of an OS it suggests rubustness)
-Boomerang : Easy name (in terms of BeOs; just when you think its gone its back!)
-Sensei : Teacher, mentor
-Cadmus : Greek Mythology. A Phoenician prince who killed a dragon and sowed its teeth, from which sprang up an army of men who fought one another until only five survived. With these five men Cadmus founded the city of Thebes.
-Ibex : Any of several wild goats of the genus Capra . (A goat is a wild and autonomous creature, it treads where others don’t)
-Pulstar : Contains “Pulse” and “Star”
-Dingo : A wild canine of Australia. (Easy name and catchy)
-Serval : A long-legged wildcat (Felis serval)
-Mandrill : A large, fierce baboon
(It has been noted that names of animals tend to be more memorable as product names)
-“n-Leap” : “n” as the prefix “en-” + “Leap” (someone “en-leap”; a snapshot during a moment of leaping forward)
After thinking a little bit more, I see the names aren’t really bad. They are not perfect, but nethertheless could catch the eye.
And the names offered on this forum are actually much worse.
How about “Cotton Squares OS” ? So long to type that nobody will use it.
What’s the purpose of the name – to identify yourself, to get people attention.
As for name not reflecting BeOS – look how Syllable is reflecting AtheOS.
Eugenia, the guy who offered Zetos actually meant Zeus , I think.
i too disagree with the names to choose from. none of them seemed to “roll” off my tongue easily. they seemed entirely bland.
although menlo has some symbolism to be, inc., it is not an os name in my book.
is there a way they could publish the names that were submitted so that we could see what was thrown out in favor of names with .com and .org addresses unavailable.
also, remember that the obos project is open source, and you can do whatever the heck you want to do with it.
like syllabus from atheos. as far as i know, syllabus is getting more forward progress than atheos, and will probably be the dominant version in the future because of this.
i am not recommending to wait for a final product, and then rename it and put it out to the public.
the problem is that bug names, scientific name (nova), and city names don’t seem too cool for an os name. also, i have to agree with george lucas’ naming scheme. no names that start with “z” or “x”. it feels like a 1920s futuristic name.
sorry if this appears to be written with a scattered mind, but that is the sad truth. i need sleep, and this is what i write when i am working on 3hrs of sleep for two days of work.
i actually really like the sound of n-leap.
should we actually be all that worried about what the os is called, i’m sure obos is actually going to be like linux and then yellowtab zeta are going to be distributions of it. Which isn’t going to be all that good in my opinion, a split effort just makes things more confusing for the general public(but thats off topic?maybe?).
also, who cares about the .com and stuff, obos is a non profit organization, so it should be just a .org.
I voted for [1]Haiku [2]Forge and the others were just random.
I don’t think it would be a good idea to use Firebox as a name. There is a firewall appliance from WatchGuard that has that name.
http://www.watchguard.com/products/firebox.asp
The names are good, they do not relate to any known OS/desktop on earth. Sure, a lot of them are used by other companies, but as trademarks in different markets. No company have a trademark on any of that 15 names for an OS product.
And why are there people STILL suggesting names? Get over it, it is too late.
I’ve been a long time BeLover and advocate. I’ve always had nothing but praise for what Be did.
Now, “back in the day” I remeber reading about BeOS being designed for MEDIA… hell.. they even called it MediaOS !!
Call it MOS or MOSS even (Media Oriented Server System?) I dunno. Its late, and I’m tired @ work, but I just found it funny no one even mentioned MediaOS, even if it can’t be used. I just remeber that ws BeOS’s origional goal.
Cheers All!
Along similar lines, I hear ‘Colgate’ has never caught on.
I think OBOE (OpenBeOS Operating Environment) is the best name I’ve heard yet. That’s after reading this enire thread and looking at the names. I decided not to vote because they all stink, IMHO.
<quote>
…I hated the list btw, they sounded like names 15 year old kids name their HaxXor linux boxes or something, they really didn’t appeal to me.
</quote>
This from someone named “Cyco”?
Open Be Operating System Operating Environment?
well at least it’s funny
Tell me about it. I didnt know which one was worse. I really shouldnt have voted but i just tried to pick out the normal ones. That was hard i can tell you.
The names are good, they do not relate to any known OS/desktop on earth.
http://www.nongnu.org/nova/
If peeps are worried about Plan 9 being similar to Plan B, how worried will they be for Nova being similar to Nova?
There weren’t a single one of those names that were even half-good for an OS. I voted for Auros though, the other ones were… worse.
NLink is really really nice-sounding. Well, there’s D-Link, so… But, Elink… no, there’s E-Line. No, NLink is good, regardless.
Bifrost is funny, really. Like a fridge or something.
I like some of the names on the list, such as Haiku.
Nova is a definite no-no, IMO. In England we have the Vauxhall Nova, which is a really shitty little car.
I take it “Banzai” was eliminated from the suggestions? A small but perfectly formed tree, a programme on Channel 4, couldn’t find any trademarks.
don’t forget that eComStation is the name of an operating system. That is seriously gay and I believe UNESCO has registered it as the worst os name.
Put a NUMBER in the name ala OS/2 so that you won’t have to worry about the domains. For example, BOS/7 and register the BOS7.* domains.
Let’s say the new operating system is considered an Nth generation operating system then come up with the name, add a ‘/’ and put in the N.
My Choices:
MOS/n (media operating system/nth gen);
BOS/3 (1st was non-intel, 2nd was intel, 3rd is the new one);
Indigo/7 (just sounds good; so does Indigo/9);
MMOS/n (modular media operating system);
WNB/OS (“we’re not be” os — pronounced Win-Be
Since it is quite obvious that so many of us get our identity completely through our affiliation with an operating system it is IMPERATIVE that the powers at Be
do not blunder on this name!!!
<qoute>This from someone named “Cyco”?</qoute>
It’s the name of the company I work at, and yes it’s silly too (I didn’t choose the name, it get auto filled into all name fields when posting from work).
I have high hopes for OpenBeOS and want it to succeed, and if it’s named something “kiddie” like (like a toy or something rather then a OS) it may actually make a difference.
> BOS/3 (1st was non-intel, 2nd was intel, 3rd is the
> new one);
No, by that system is should be BOS/4
Hobbit was 1,
PPC was 2,
Intel was 3…
“I take it “Banzai” was eliminated from the suggestions? A small but perfectly formed tree, a programme on Channel 4, couldn’t find any trademarks.”
Hum, isn’t that “B*o*nzai”? IIRC, ‘Banzai’ was the war cry of the Japanese Army. Cool name, but certainly not PC *grin*
Actually, I quite like ‘Menlo’. Sounds professional and not like chosen by a bunch of geeks on their day out ;-).
monty
I voted but if Hamlet(OS) was added that would be my favourite.
‘BE the difference that makes a difference’ – Jewel
Duh, feeling a bit dumb today…
Ok, so Bonsai is a small tree.
Banzai is the war cry of the janpanese army and a programme on Channel 4.
“Ditto” would be quite good, if it didn’t mean ‘more of the same…’
– “Dynamos” ??? As in “Dyn-AM-os” (Seems to be a hockey club and a Spanish internet company – darn)
I’ll shut up now.
All names sound like a Toyota or Fasa Mech… sorry, but they ALL suck.
Start a collection fund instead to buy the Be name from Palm. I know I’d pay.
/Robert
I would think that you could find something better
to spend a collection fund on.
Maybe pay the developers, or get them some new toys?
The name really isn’t that important.
Once you have the name (doesn’t matter which) out there
everyone that knew BeOS will spend some time getting used to
it but it will grow on you. and everyone else won’t know the difference. I think you have to let the product speak for itself, not rely on the name to do the work for you.
If the OS is good then the name will take on good conotations
and the inverse it true also.
-Jeremiah
Ok, by far the best offered example here would be Plan B. And that’s certainly better (no offense) than anything the OBOS guys came up with.
Regardless of anyones opinion as to it’s legality/challengability as an OS name – keep in mind that it is a GENERIC term. How many times has anyone done something that did not work, and said to yourself (or others) “OK, time for Plan B”? Plan B is a term in common english usage, and any challenge to it (methinks) would be quickly laughed out of a court.
It is a reminder of where the OS “came from” so to speak, and what we as a community had to do to keep it alive – “OK, Be, Inc is gone, lets go to plan b”. I think it is great name for the forthcoming OS, and it should be seriously considered.
Everyone who used BeOS is like a drop in the ocean… everyone who heard of BeOS is however a significant amount more.
I don’t think any negative vibes are associated with Be, and brand recognition is the most important thing to a company today, and the most expensive thing for ALL big companies.
My guess is that punters don’t want to learn a new name and that OBOS will have a harder time to gain market share without the Be name.
(And yes, I know there’s not any company involved, but there’s still a product to “sell”.)
/Robert
Ps. if I win a billion bucks, I’ll buy the name and give it to them.
I went to the OpenBeOS voting page from the BeOSjournal.org (luckily I didn’t come to OSnews to read the discussion yet), and was shocked to see a list of 15 totally retarded names. Hamlet? What a lame name. At first I didn’t see why it was there (or any of them for that matter), then it accured to me “To be or not to be”. (Enter cheesy comic sidekick drum here) Lame. Like I wanna tell people I program for Hamlet. Are we gonna call app/programs applets? And it phymes with piglet!
I originally suggested to the pool “MediaOS” and “Exodos”.
The thing that initially drew me to BeOS was the coverage it got in audio/media magazines as a new alternative operating system that was going to crush Windows and Mac in media and midi in latency, etc. on a PC!! And they had strong support from audio software developers (Steinberg, eMagic, Echo audio). If I remember correctly Steinberg had done the most development on the BeOS version of Nuendo up until the BeOS “focus shift” (lets call it “FocusShift OS” – J/K!). eMagic was also already deep into BeOS development, and backed out at the dreaded focus shift. At first I hated Steinberg/eMagic for backing out…but then I was just mad they didn’t release drivers for their midi and audio products!! You know thats one of the first things they developed, and had to have very functional versions in order to test their BeOS beta code. “MediaOS” definately has a cool vibe.
“Exodos” (could be ExoDOS , Exodus OS) was just an idea representing our “Exodus” from Microsoft. But in retrospect, I think its kinda a lame name and way to political (I don’t think Palestinian or other non-Judeo-Christians would like it to much).
I did however think of a cool name the other day, and was surprised to see the new name voting. My idea was:
Obe
(or Obe OS)
Could stand for Open Be
Could also stand for a generic term OBE
“OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE”!
Just some thoughts, sorry for the long rant, but naming MY OS is VERY IMPORTANT to ME, and the existing names suck big hairy (fill in the blank).
– David Beckman
BeShare: :Wumpscut:
dev of PocketCalc: bebits.com/app/2725
Much as I love the Oboe idea (for the music ref), I voted for Nemo and Firefly I think. Having said that, the final one needs to be internationally acceptable – very difficult. Humour (Plan B) will not translate easily to other languages.
E.g the pronounciation of Oboe is not obvious to most of the world. Need to be very careful that the world can SAY the name, or have it so outlandish that you learn it by association (e.g. witness the Haagen-Dazs brand created from random letters…)
<off topic opinion>
We English native speakers should not take our “advantage” for granted. For the same reason, I always post/write/web in formal language as slang is not taught in classrooms. More people will then understand it.
</off topic opinion>
Anyway, back to work
Byebye OBOS, hello ????? we welcome you into existence!
I kinda like the name Oboe, because of the musical reference (and it’s similar sounding to Obe). But I’m a synth player, and everyone know the preset “acoustic” synths sounds…especially the Oboes!!
😀
Also I would like to say that I beally liked the Plan B idea also (it’s the only other suggestion I remember from the original list – all the names we have to vote for [I’m withholding my vote right now, until hopefully the system gets changed]).
1.)Plan B is like mentioned before, a genric term (“Lets go to Plan B!”), therefore free for use.
2.)Plan 9 is totally jacked from Ed Wood’s Plan 9 from Outer Space…that in itself makes it a generic name…either that or Plan 9 is infringing on Wood…either way how does it affect Plan B?
3.) BPlan can go eat it!
Besides BPlan isn’t the OS.
Seriously though, I’d have a new names list, 50 sounds good. Or just stick with OBOS until you hear otherwise from Palm. Did you guys even bother asking Palm Inc. if they even gave a toot about your name? You would think with a year of OpenBeOS.org, you would have heard from their lawyers by now if they had a gripe, and you would have been FORCED to change your name much earlier!
– David Beckman
I was dissapointed to see the end list, precisely because of what people have already observed; no name seemed to jump out.
But I’m starting to come around. I hate the sound of most of thoes names (dysis… yech). But I love the symbolism of some of them… menlo especially.
OpenBeos seems like a pet project to me… something I just really like and hope succeeds. I really want it to get off the ground and take hold, whereas with other OS’s I simply want them to be usable; no personal ties. I like “Nemo” because it’s something I could call a project I like. It’s not cool or trendy, doesn’t have ties to Be (menlo would be better for that), but it does sound nice and it sounds like a person’s name, albeit one that isn’t used for any real people. I like it. Good luck voting guys, and people who submitted other names; it’d be fun to hear what you had submitted before. Not in order to criticize the naming-people (I think they’ve had enough ignorant criticism for one day), but because I find it interesting what people wanted it to be named. Best of luck to … Nemo? Firefly?
Please stop suggesting more names. The time for this passed months ago. Let the name choosing go forward with those short-listed, so the team can concentrate on more productive issues.
For the record, my first choice of those offered is Haiku.
I guess I am a purple nut. I voted for Indigo, though I made Haiku my second choice.
I think BeOPEN is a catchy name.
Being an American, I was under the impression that everyone in the world was required to understand english, especially when we yell it louder (because you din’t understand us the first time).
oboe or oboa, pronounced almost the same, and I would be very surprised if the majority of people in the world wouldn’t recognize the word for what it is.
Plan B: ditto. In fact, italians say “piano B” just the same. Croatians say “plan B”, so it’s even spelled the same as in english.
Frankly, both are much more international than the “be” verb itself. Or windows! Nobody calls their windows “windows” except english speaking folks. And yet, “Windows” is the most popular OS by far, far…
cowlibob sez: Please stop suggesting more names. The time for this passed months ago.
Why are you so worried about people proposing names? Are they hurting you in any way, taking your lunch, stomping on your garden flowers, what’s the problem?
Most people apparently found the 15-strong list to be bland. (I say this based on what I saw on 4 different boards). I agree: it’s bland, uninspiring, void of fantasy or passion, i.e. somewhat dead. BeOS is an inspiring OS; and it’s actually the only OS of which I can say this. People, quite naturally, don’t want to be stuck with a name that doesn’t move.
One rant: begin. If you were looking for the least sexy, least lively and happy word that contains the syllable “be”, you’ve found it, it’s “begin”.
Speaking as an existing BeOS user keen not to have to give up on my top platform and maybe even get some new applications one day….
I was surpised at how sucky and lame those choices were. I mean jaffa (that’s a biscuit where I come from) and, to echo other comments, the rest would make great car names nut none of them sound as racy as a BeOS replacement should!
I wouldn’t normally post any sort of comment here but I felt that there NONE that really said what needed to be said and branded the OS properly. Maybe you should start a poll were people can suggest a name and the most popular 10 go through to a final shoot out?
Many of the names suggested in this thread were *already* part of the 3000+ names that were originally suggested to the OBOS people. If they’re not on the final list, there’s most likely a good reason for that.
There’s no point in suggesting new names now unless there is a pretty strong agreement among the community that none of these final 15 names is good enough. Even then, we would need to come up with entirely new names, not repeat the original 3000 over and over again.
I agree with Michael.
Also, i feel none of these 15 names is good enough.
How about “Waste Of Time” or maybe “Never Happen” or even…”I’ll Believe It When I see it”.
Wouldn’t it be a good idea to name it AFTER it’s done? (or at least fully functional)
Now you all see how hard it is to CODE the damn thing when you can’t even NAME it!
The only good name would be “Finished”.
We can do this democratically, and in a timely fashion.
I’m hosting a forum for both the proposed names, and a seperate one for discussion.
Proposal:
http://www.beosjournal.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=216
Discussion:
http://www.beosjournal.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=217
Mantis is kinda cool but:
http://sonique.lycos.com/mantis/
Since it’s not os related it’s probably usable, if not can i suggest HugOS
PS: My eyes are yellowish-green (the Blue Eyed Os joke)
I must most sincerely secon chris simmons, the only remotely usable names are firefly and firebox!
but due to most of those names I for one cant in Any way believe those to be the best ones.
Linux was named as such due to Linus’s name , not by virtue of a thriving user community!
and I for one cannot even fathom the idea that these names were the best ones of approxametly 3000 names, Never .
I do however believe that a charming name that stands out of the rest is needed.
BUT the name is not the real issue, the name is for all intents and purposes up to the REdistributors..
the issue is this, who does the most work and who are in the end responsible for the OBOS project, these Persons are the ones that should name it after their own hearts content!
The obvious choice is BeOS/2.
I think Nova was the best of the choices; it sure was hard to pick five that were acceptable. It would be nice to have an appropriate star/space theme on the desktop.
My idea, that I thought was so bad I never mensioned it, was better than most of the 15. BeeOS – just add some yellow and black stripes to the desktop. Of course it’s derivative, but that’s the entire point of the whole project!
better than the 15, anyway. BTW, I saw when you proposed it. But I thik it was after the deadline for accepting new names.
Not that it matters at this point.
I love BeOS/2
>I love BeOS/2
On the other hand, I would hate to use a half BeOS. 😉
Menlo is cool because that’s where Be’s offices were located (Menlo Park) so it still keeps it’s connection to Be in some way.
To Vlad and Eugenia:
http://es.geocities.com/proyectoarcadia/clasica/zetos.html
To Jay: YellowTab uses Zeta because it’s the sixth letter in the greek alphabet. R6, you know…
Helmar
ARSE!
A Revolutionary Software Environment
Beats anything pants down. 😉
Helmar
I believe that Indigo and Nova names are most envolved with BeOS spirit!
Michael VÃnÃcius de Oliveira
BlueEyedOS Webmaster
as I said in begroovy, indigo is the name of SGI’s most succesful graphics workstations to date. Copyrighted through the ceiling…
and Indigo 2 is copyrighted, too
…it’s Latin for “nobody”, so I don’t really think it’s a good name for any product; to me it seems like a prediction how many people will use it.
Just stick with OpenBeOS, a new name would probably not catch on.
You can name stuff anyway you want, but people will use the one they remember…
The new ING bank headquarter is now know as kruimeldief(small thief/ dustbuster) because it resembles a small vacuumcleaner…
Heinekens musichall in Amsterdam ZO(SouthEast) is called Bijlmer Bierhal (old name of the area)
The bond with BeOS is to strong for OpenBeOS to forget…
what the fuck???
the names sucks…
jaffa? it’s a lemonade… we could also call it fanta!
“ARSE!
A Revolutionary Software Environment”
Alright, all suggested names suck, besides THIS one.
Seriously, what was the reason against the OBOS name? Palm will sue for the inclusion of Be, or what? Isn’t there one person left employed at Be just to be able to sue Microsoft? When that’s done, couldn’t that person donate the name to OBOS?
Anyway, again, the names SUCK. They are car models, cookies, softdrinks and anything besides an OS. Sure, they could also be cheeky internal code names, but there’s a reason that those names stay internal.
/Robert