Fedora 9's Name

Fedora 9's Name

The following is some comments posted to Planet Fedora by Fabian Affolter. I found it hilarious, and as there is always a problem when translating things from English to other languages, I thought it would be good to have it translated into something more accessible. I've taken a few liberties translating this, since German doesn't match neatly with English in direct meaning. With his permission:

Moving along, a new name for Fedora 9 was chosen. It's going to be Sulpher, or in German Schwefel. I can live with that.

Were we to continue forever with the Periodic Table of Elements, I would be very happy. From my point of view, it makes things clearer and more intelligent, if the code name came from a scientific field. There are always going to be great names in English, but when translated into other languages, they are hilarious. I would prefer not to have this problem again. Ubuntu, for example, picks names you might expect to hear in a playground. They should belong, rather, in a childrens' book. I'm looking forward for more good laughs, Crummy Cat, Dirty Dog, the Oozing Ox, and the Drunken Deer. If I say at work that I'm using the Effluvious Eel, my coworkers would roll around on the floor laughing.

[I had to use the thesaurus to find Effluvious :P]

Who the devil chose "Mayonnaise"? I'll give you joker's a few good hints about what happens when a Frenchman speaking German has no idea what that is.

-fin-

To be honest, I think one of the hardest accents in German to understand comes from French speakers. The two languages are so different in some ways, that as a foreigner, it is that much harder to comprehend. While I certainly appreciate calling Fedora after a tasty sauce to go with roast beef, you have to admit that without a large international marketing team, our name will be broadcast around the world. Many big companies pay millions of dollars to have *different* names in different countries. It also cracks me up that "Lagnese Eis", an ice cream company has an Italian name in Germany, but a German name in Israel. (I think it's either "Straub's" or "Strauss's" although I can't remember offhand.)