开源软件名称中的故事
开源

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> 有没有想过你喜欢的开源项目或编程语言的名称来自何处？让我们按字母顺序了解一下流行的技术术语背后的起源故事。
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![](/data/attachment/album/201912/17/225902ogkk85zm4gqlim9h.jpg)


GNOME、Java、Jupyter、Python……如果你的朋友或家人曾留意过你的工作对话，他们可能会认为你从事文艺复兴时期的民间文学艺术、咖啡烘焙、天文学或动物学工作。这些开源技术的名称从何而来？我们请我们的作者社区提供意见，并汇总了一些我们最喜欢的技术名称的起源故事。


### Ansible


“Ansible”这个名称直接来自科幻小说。Ursula Le Guin 的《Rocannon's World》一书中能进行即时（比光速更快）通信的设备被称为 ansibles（显然来自 “answerable” 一词）。Ansibles 开始流行于科幻小说之中，Orson Scott Card 的《Ender's Game》（后来成为受欢迎的电影）中，该设备控制了许多远程太空飞船。对于控制分布式机器的软件来说，这似乎是一个很好的模型，因此 Michael DeHaan（Ansible 的创建者和创始人）借用了这个名称。


### Apache


[Apache](https://httpd.apache.org/) 是最初于 1995 年发布的开源 Web 服务器。它的名称与著名的美国原住民部落无关；相反，它是指对原始软件代码的重复补丁。因此称之为，“<ruby> 一个修补的 <rt>  A-patchy </rt></ruby>服务器”。


### awk


“awk(1) 代表着 Aho、Weinberger、Kernighan（作者）”—— Michael Greenberg


### Bash


“最初的 Unix shell，即 Bourne shell，是以其创造者的名字命名的。在开发出来 Bash 时，csh（发音为 ‘seashell’）实际上更受交互登录用户的欢迎。Bash 项目旨在赋予 Bourne shell 新的生命，使其更适合于交互式使用，因此它被命名为 ‘Bourne again shell’，是‘<ruby> 重生 <rt>  born again </rt></ruby>’的双关语。”——Ken Gaillot


### C


在早期，AT&T 的 Ken Thompson 和 Dennis Ritchie 发现可以使用更高级的编程语言（而不是低级的、可移植性更低的汇编编程）来编写操作系统和工具。早期有一个叫做 BCPL（<ruby> 基本组合编程语言 <rt>  Basic Combined programming Language </rt></ruby>）的编程系统，Thompson 创建了一个名为 B 的简化版 BCPL，但 B 的灵活性和速度都不高。然后，Ritchie 把 B 的思想扩展成一种叫做 C 的编译语言。”——Jim Hall


### dd


“我想你发表这样一篇文章不能不提到 dd。我的外号叫 Didi。发音正确的话听起来像 ‘dd’。我开始学的是 Unix，然后是 Linux，那是在 1993 年，当时我还是个学生。然后我去了军队，来到了我的部队中少数几个使用 Unix（Ultrix）的部门之一（其它部门主要是 VMS），那里的一个人说：‘这么说，你是一个黑客，对吗？你以为你了解 Unix 吗？好的，那么 dd 这个名字的是怎么来的呢？’我不知道，试着猜道：‘<ruby> 数据复印机 <rt>  Data duplicator </rt></ruby>？’所以他说，‘我要告诉你 dd 的故事。dd 是<ruby> 转换 <rt>  convert </rt></ruby>和<ruby> 复制 <rt>  copy </rt></ruby>的缩写（如今人们仍然可以在手册页中看到），但由于 cc 这个缩写已经被 C 编译器占用，所以它被命名为 dd。’就在几年后，我听闻了关于 JCL 的数据定义和 Unix dd 命令不统一的、半开玩笑的语法的真实故事，某种程度是基于此的。”——Yedidyah Bar David


### Emacs


经典的<ruby> 反 vi <rt>  anti-vi </rt></ruby>编辑器，其名称的真正词源并不明显，因为它源自“<ruby> 编辑宏 <rt>  Editing MACroS </rt></ruby>”。但是，它作为一个伟大的宗教亵渎和崇拜的对象，吸引了许多恶作剧般的缩写，例如“Escape Meta Alt Control Shift”（以调侃其对键盘的大量依赖），“<ruby> 8MB 并经常发生内存交换 <rt>  Eight Megabytes And Constantly Swapping </rt></ruby>”（从那时起就很吃内存了），“<ruby> 最终分配了所有的计算机存储空间 <rt>  Eventually malloc()s All Computer Storage </rt></ruby>”和 “<ruby> EMACS 使一台计算机慢 <rt>  EMACS Makes A Computer Slow </rt></ruby>”——改编自 Jargon File/Hacker's Dictionary


### Enarx


[Enarx](https://enarx.io) 是机密计算领域的一个新项目。该项目的设计原则之一是它应该是“可替代的”。因此最初的名字是“psilocybin”（著名的魔术蘑菇）。一般情况下，经理级别的人可能会对这个名称有所抵触，因此考虑使用新名称。该项目的两位创始人 Mike Bursell 和 Nathaniel McCallum 都是古老语言极客，因此他们考虑了许多不同的想法，包括 тайна（Tayna——俄语中代表秘密或神秘——虽然俄语并不是一门古老的语言，但你就不要在乎这些细节了），crypticon（希腊语的意思是完全私生的），cryptidion（希腊中表示小密室），arconus（拉丁语中表示秘密的褒义形容词），arcanum（拉丁语中表示秘密的中性形容词）和 ærn（盎格鲁撒克逊人表示地方、秘密的地方、壁橱、住所、房子，或小屋的词汇）。最后，由于各种原因，包括域名和 GitHub 项目名称的可用性，他们选择了 enarx，这是两个拉丁词根的组合：en-（表示内部）和 -arx（表示城堡、要塞或堡垒）。


### GIMP


没有 [GIMP](https://www.gimp.org/) 我们会怎么样？<ruby> GNU 图像处理项目 <rt>  GNU Image Manipulation Project </rt></ruby>多年来一直是开源的重要基础。[维基百科](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIMP)指出，“1995 年，[Spencer Kimball](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spencer_Kimball_(computer_programmer)) 和 [Peter Mattis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Mattis) 在加州大学伯克利分校开始为<ruby> 实验计算设施 <rt>  eXperimental Computing Facility </rt></ruby>开发 GIMP，这是一个为期一个学期的项目。”


### GNOME


你有没有想过为什么 GNOME 被称为 GNOME？根据[维基百科](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNOME)，GNOME 最初是一个表示“<ruby> GNU 网络对象模型环境 <rt>  GNU Network Object Model Environment </rt></ruby>”的缩写词。现在，该名称不再表示该项目，并且该项目已被放弃，但这个名称仍然保留了下来。[GNOME 3](https://www.gnome.org/gnome-3/) 是 Fedora、红帽企业版、Ubuntu、Debian、SUSE Linux 企业版等发行版的默认桌面环境。


### Java


你能想象这种编程语言还有其它名称吗？Java 最初被称为 Oak，但是遗憾的是，Sun Microsystems 的法律团队由于已有该商标而否决了它。所以开发团队又重新给它命名。[据说](https://www.javaworld.com/article/2077265/so-why-did-they-decide-to-call-it-java-.html)该语言的工作组在 1995 年 1 月举行了一次大规模的头脑风暴。许多其它名称也被扔掉了，包括 Silk、DNA、WebDancer 等。该团队不希望新名称与过度使用的术语“web”或“net”有任何关系。取而代之的是，他们在寻找更有活力、更有趣、更容易记住的东西。Java 满足了这些要求，并且奇迹般地，团队同意通过了！


### Jupyter


现在许多数据科学家和学生在工作中使用 [Jupyter](https://jupyter.org/) 笔记本。“Jupyter”这个名字是三种开源计算机语言的融合，这三种语言在这个笔记本中都有使用，在数据科学中也很突出：[Julia](https://julialang.org/)、[Python](https://www.python.org/) 和 [R](https://www.r-project.org/)。


### Kubernetes


Kubernetes 源自希腊语中的舵手。Kubernetes 项目创始人 Craig McLuckie 在 [2015 Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9653797) 回应中证实了这种词源。他坚持航海主题，解释说，这项技术可以驱动集装箱，就像舵手或驾驶员驾驶集装箱船一样，因此，他选择了 Kubernetes 这个名字。我们中的许多人仍然在尝试正确的发音（koo-bur-NET-eez），因此 替代使用 K8s 也是可以接受的。有趣的是，它与英语单词“<ruby> 行政长官 <rp>  （ </rp> <rt>  governor </rt> <rp>  ） </rp></ruby>”具有相同的词源，也与蒸汽机上的机械负反馈装置相同。


### KDE


那 K 桌面呢？KDE 最初代表“<ruby> 酷桌面环境 <rt>  Kool Desktop Environment </rt></ruby>”。 它由 [Matthias Ettrich](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthias_Ettrich) 于 1996 年创立。根据[维基百科](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KDE)上的说法，该名称是对 Unix 上 <ruby> <a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/cdesktopenv/">  通用桌面环境 </a> <rt>  Common Desktop Environment </rt></ruby>（CDE）一词的调侃。


### Linux


[Linux](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux) 因其发明者 Linus Torvalds 的名字命名的。Linus 最初想将他的作品命名为“Freax”，因为他认为以他自己的名字命名太自负了。根据[维基百科](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux)的说法，“赫尔辛基科技大学 Torvalds 的同事 Ari Lemmke 当时是 FTP 服务器的志愿管理员之一，他并不认为‘Freax’是个好名字。因此，他没有征询 Torvalds 就将服务器上的这个项目命名为‘Linux’。”


以下是一些最受欢迎的 Linux 发行版。


#### CentOS


[CentOS](https://www.centos.org/) 是<ruby> 社区企业操作系统 <rt>  Community Enterprise Operating System </rt></ruby>的缩写。它包含来自 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 的上游软件包。


#### Debian


[Debian](https://www.debian.org/) Linux 创建于 1993 年 9 月，是其创始人 Ian Murdock 和他当时的女友 Debra Lynn 的名字的混成词。


#### RHEL


[Red Hat Linux](https://www.redhat.com/en/technologies/linux-platforms/enterprise-linux) 得名于它的创始人 Marc Ewing，他戴着一顶祖父送给他的康奈尔大学红色<ruby> 软呢帽 <rt>  fedora </rt></ruby>。红帽公司成立于 1993 年 3 月 26 日。[Fedora Linux](https://getfedora.org/) 最初是一个志愿者项目，旨在为红帽发行版提供额外的软件，它的名字来自红帽的“Shadowman”徽标。


#### Ubuntu


[Ubuntu](https://ubuntu.com/about) 旨在广泛分享开源软件，它以非洲哲学“<ruby> 人的本质 <rt>  ubuntu </rt></ruby>”命名，可以翻译为“对他人的人道主义”或“我之所以是我，是因为我们都是这样的人”。


### Moodle


开源学习平台 [Moodle](https://moodle.org/) 是“<ruby> 模块化面向对象动态学习环境 <rt>  modular object-oriented dynamic learning environment </rt></ruby>”的首字母缩写。Moodle 仍然是领先的线上学习平台。全球有近 10.4 万个注册的 Moodle 网站。


另外两个流行的开源内容管理系统是 Drupal 和 Joomla。Drupal 的名字来自荷兰语 “druppel”，意思是“掉落”。根据维基百科，Joomla 是斯瓦希里语单词“jumla”的[英式拼写](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joomla#Historical_background)，在阿拉伯语、乌尔都语和其他语言中是“在一起”的意思。


### Mozilla


[Mozilla](https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/) 是一个成立于 1998 年的开源软件社区。根据其网站，“Mozilla 项目创建于 1998 年，发布了 Netscape 浏览器套件源代码。其旨在利用互联网上成千上万的程序员的创造力，并推动浏览器市场上前所未有的创新水平。” 这个名字是 [Mosaic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosaic_(web_browser)) 和 Godzilla 的混成词。


### Nginx


“许多技术人员都试图装酷，并将它念成‘n’‘g’‘n’‘x’。实际上，很少的一些人做点基本的调查工作，就可以很快发现该名称实际上应该被念成是“EngineX”，指的是功能强大的 web 服务器，像个引擎。”——Jean Sebastien Tougne


### Perl


Perl 的创始人 Larry Wall 最初将他的项目命名为“Pearl”。根据维基百科，Wall 想给这种语言起一个有积极含义的简短名字。在 Perl 正式发布之前，Wall 发现了已有 [PEARL](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PEARL_(programming_language)) 编程语言，于是更改了名称的拼写。


### Piet 和 Mondrian


“有两种编程语言以艺术家 Piet Mondrian 命名。一种叫做‘Piet’，另一种叫做‘Mondrian’。（David Morgan-Mar [写道](http://www.dangermouse.net/esoteric/piet.html)）：‘Piet 是一种编程语言，其中的程序看起来像抽象绘画。该语言以几何抽象艺术的开创者 Piet Mondrian 的名字命名。我曾想将这种语言命名为 Mondrian，但是有人告诉我这会让它看起来像一种很普通的脚本语言。哦，好吧，我想我们不能都是深奥的语言作家。’”——Yuval Lifshitz


### Python


Python 编程语言的独特名称来自其创建者 Guido Van Rossum，他是英国六人喜剧团体 Monty Python 的粉丝。


### Raspberry Pi


Raspberry Pi 以其微小但强大的功能和对低廉的价格而闻名，在开源社区中是最受欢迎的。但是它可爱（和好吃）的名字是从哪里来的呢？在 70 年代和 80 年代，以水果命名的计算机是一种流行的趋势。苹果、橘子、杏……有人饿了吗？根据创始人 Eben Upton 的 [2012 采访](https://www.techspot.com/article/531-eben-upton-interview/)，“<ruby> 树莓派 <rt>  Raspberry Pi </rt></ruby>”这个名称是对这种趋势的致敬。树莓也很小，但却很有味道。名称中的“Pi”暗示着这样的事实：最初，该计算机只能运行 Python。


### Samba


[Server Message Block](https://www.samba.org/) 用于在 Linux 上共享 Windows 文件。


### ScummVM


[ScummVM](https://www.scummvm.org/)（《疯狂大楼》虚拟机的脚本创建实用程序）是一个程序，可以在现代计算机上运行一些经典的计算机冒险游戏。最初，它旨在玩用 SCUMM 构建的 LucasArts 的冒险游戏，该游戏最初用于开发《疯狂大楼》，后来又被用来开发 LucasArts 的其它大多数冒险游戏。目前，ScummVM 支持大量游戏引擎，包括 Sierra Online 的 AGI 和 SCI，但仍保留着名称 ScummVM。


有一个相关的项目 [ResidualVM](https://www.residualvm.org/) 之所以得名，是因为它涵盖了 ScummVM 未涵盖的“<ruby> 剩余的 <rt>  residual </rt></ruby>” LucasArts 冒险游戏。 ResidualVM 涵盖的 LucasArts 游戏是使用 GrimE（Grim Engine）开发的，该引擎最初用于开发 Grim Fandango，因此 ResidualVM 的名称是双关语。


### SQL


“你可能知道 SQL 代表<ruby> 结构化查询语言 <rt>  Structured Query Language </rt></ruby>，但你知道为什么它经常被读作‘sequel’吗？它是作为原本的‘QUEL’（<ruby> 查询语言 <rt>  QUEry Language </rt></ruby>）的后续（如<ruby> 结局 <rt>  sequel </rt></ruby>）而创建的。”——Ken Gaillot


### XFCE


[XFCE](https://www.xfce.org/) 是由 [Olivier Fourdan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivier_Fourdan) 创建的一个流行的桌面。它在 1996 年作为 CDE 的替代品出现，最初是 <ruby> XForms 公共环境 <rt>  XForms Common Environment </rt></ruby>的缩写。


### Zsh


Zsh 是一个交互式登录 shell。1990 年，普林斯顿大学的学生 Paul Falstad 写了该 shell 的第一个版本。他在看到当时在普林斯顿大学担任助教的 Zhong Sha 的登录 ID（zsh）后，觉得这个名字听起来像 [shell 的好名字](http://www.zsh.org/mla/users/2005/msg00951.html)，给它起了这个名字。


还有更多的项目和名称还没有包括在这个列表中。请一定要在评论中分享你的收藏。




---


via: <https://opensource.com/article/19/10/open-source-name-origins>


作者：[Joshua Allen Holm](https://opensource.com/users/holmja) 选题：[lujun9972](https://github.com/lujun9972) 译者：[laingke](https://github.com/laingke) 校对：[wxy](https://github.com/wxy)


本文由 [LCTT](https://github.com/LCTT/TranslateProject) 原创编译，[Linux中国](https://linux.cn/) 荣誉推出


OK
GNOME, Java, Jupyter, Python. If your friends or family members have ever eavesdropped on your work conversations, they might think you've made a career in Renaissance folklore, coffee roasting, astronomy, or zoology. Where did the names of these open source technologies come from? We asked our writer community for input and rounded up some of our favorite tech name origin stories.

## Ansible

The name "Ansible" is lifted directly from science fiction. Ursula Le Guin's book *Rocannon's World* had devices allowing instantaneous (faster than light) communication called ansibles (derived, apparently, from the word "answerable"). Ansibles became a staple of science fiction, including in Orson Scott Card's *Ender's Game* (which later became a popular film), where the device controlled many remote space ships. This seemed to be a good model for software that controls distributed machines, so Michael DeHaan (creator and founder of Ansible) borrowed the name.

## Apache

[Apache](https://httpd.apache.org/) is an open source web server that was originally released in 1995. Its name is not related to the famous Native American tribe; it instead refers to the repeated patches to its original software code. Hence, "A-patchy server."

## awk

"awk(1) Stands for Aho, Weinberger, Kernighan (authors)" —Michael Greenberg

## Bash

"The original Unix shell, the Bourne shell, was named after its creator. At the time Bash was being developed, csh (pronounced 'seashell') was actually more popular for interactive user logins. The Bash project aimed to give new life to the Bourne shell by making it more suitable for interactive use, thus it was named the 'Bourne again shell,' a pun on 'born again.'" —Ken Gaillot

## C

"In early days, Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie at AT&T found it interesting that you could use a higher-level programming language (instead of low-level and less-portable assembly programming) to write operating systems and tools. There was an early programming system called BCPL (Basic Combined Programming Language), and Thompson created a stripped-down version of BCPL called B. But B wasn't very flexible or fast. Ritchie then took the ideas of B and expanded it into a compiled language called C." —Jim Hall

## dd

"I don't think you can publish such an article without mentioning dd. My nickname is Didi. Correctly pronounced, it sounds like 'dd.' I first learned Unix, and then Linux, in 1993 as a student. Then I went to the army, arrived to one of the very few sections in my unit that used Unix (Ultrix) (the rest were mainly VMS), and one of the people there said: 'So, you are a hacker, right? You think you know Unix? OK, so what's the reason for the name dd?' I had no idea and tried to guess: "Data duplicator?" So he said, 'I'll tell you the story of dd. dd is short for *convert and copy* (as anyone can still see today on the manpage), but since cc was already taken by the c compiler, it was named dd.' Only years later, I heard the true story about JCL's data definition and the non-uniform, semi-joking syntax for the Unix dd command somewhat being based on it." —Yedidyah Bar David

## Emacs

The classic anti-vi editor, the true etymology of the name is unremarkable, in that it derives from "Editing MACroS." Being an object of great religious opprobrium and worship it has, however, attracted many spoof bacronyms such as "Escape Meta Alt Control Shift" (to spoof its heavy reliance on keystrokes), "Eight Megabytes And Constantly Swapping" (from when that was a lot of memory), "Eventually malloc()s All Computer Storage," and "EMACS Makes A Computer Slow." —Adapted from the Jargon File/Hacker's Dictionary

## Enarx

[Enarx](https://enarx.io) is a new project in the confidential computing space. One of the project's design principles was that it should be "fungible." so an initial name was "psilocybin" (the famed magic mushroom). The general feeling was that manager types would probably be resistant, so new names were considered. The project's two founders, Mike Bursell and Nathaniel McCallum, are both ancient language geeks, so they considered lots of different ideas, including тайна (Tayna—Russian for secret or mystery—although Russian, admittedly, is not ancient, but hey), crypticon (total bastardization of Greek), cryptidion (Greek for small secret place), arcanus (Latin masculine adjective for secret), arcanum (Latin neuter adjective for secret), and ærn (Anglo-Saxon for place, secret place, closet, habitation, house, or cottage). In the end, for various reasons, including the availability of domains and GitHub project names, they settled on enarx, a combination of two Latin roots: en- (meaning within) and -arx (meaning citadel, stronghold, or fortress).

## GIMP

Where would we be without [GIMP](https://www.gimp.org/)? The GNU Image Manipulation Project has been an open source staple for many years. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIMP) states, "In 1995, [Spencer Kimball](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spencer_Kimball_(computer_programmer)) and [Peter Mattis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Mattis) began developing GIMP as a semester-long project at the University of California, Berkeley, for the eXperimental Computing Facility."

## GNOME

Have you ever wondered why GNOME is called GNOME? According to [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNOME), GNOME was originally an acronym that represented the "GNU Network Object Model Environment." Now that name no longer represents the project and has been dropped, but the name has stayed. [GNOME 3 ](https://www.gnome.org/gnome-3/)is the default desktop environment for Fedora, Red Hat Enterprise, Ubuntu, Debian, SUSE Linux Enterprise, and more.

## Java

Can you imagine this programming language being named anything else? Java was originally called Oak, but alas, the legal team at Sun Microsystems vetoed that name due to its existing trademark. So it was back to the drawing board for the development team. [Legend has it](https://www.javaworld.com/article/2077265/so-why-did-they-decide-to-call-it-java-.html) that a massive brainstorm was held by the language's working group in January 1995. Lots of other names were tossed around including Silk, DNA, WebDancer, and so on. The team did not want the new name to have anything to do with the overused terms, "web" or "net." Instead, they were searching for something more dynamic, fun, and easy to remember. Java met the requirements and miraculously, the team agreed!

## Jupyter

Many of today's data scientists and students use [Jupyter](https://jupyter.org/) notebooks in their work. The name Jupyter is an amalgamation of three open source computer languages that are used in the notebooks and prominent in data science: [Julia](https://julialang.org/), [Python](https://www.python.org/), and [R](https://www.r-project.org/).

## Kubernetes

Kubernetes is derived from the Greek word for helmsman. This etymology was corroborated in a [2015 Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9653797) response by a Kubernetes project founder, Craig McLuckie. Wanting to stick with the nautical theme, he explained that the technology drives containers, much like a helmsman or pilot drives a container ship. Thus, Kubernetes was the chosen name. Many of us are still trying to get the pronunciation right (koo-bur-NET-eez), so K8s is an acceptable substitute. Interestingly, it shares its etymology with the English word "governor," so has that in common with the mechanical negative-feedback device on steam engines.

## KDE

What about the K desktop? KDE originally represented the "Kool Desktop Environment." It was founded in 1996 by [Matthias Ettrich](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthias_Ettrich). According to [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KDE), the name was a play on the words [Common Desktop Environment](https://sourceforge.net/projects/cdesktopenv/) (CDE) on Unix.

## Linux

[Linux](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux) was named for its inventor, Linus Torvalds. Linus originally wanted to name his creation "Freax" as he thought that naming the creation after himself was too egotistical. According to [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux), "Ari Lemmke, Torvalds' coworker at the Helsinki University of Technology, who was one of the volunteer administrators for the FTP server at the time, did not think that 'Freax' was a good name. So, he named the project 'Linux' on the server without consulting Torvalds."


Following are some of the most popular Linux distributions.

### CentOS

[CentOS](https://www.centos.org/) is an acronym for Community Enterprise Operating System. It contains the upstream packages from Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

### Debian

[Debian](https://www.debian.org/) Linux, founded in September 1993, is a portmanteau of its founder, Ian Murdock, and his then-girlfriend Debra Lynn.

### RHEL

[Red Hat Linux](https://www.redhat.com/en/technologies/linux-platforms/enterprise-linux) got its name from its founder Marc Ewing, who wore a red Cornell University fedora given to him by his grandfather. Red Hat was founded on March 26, 1993. [Fedora Linux](https://getfedora.org/) began as a volunteer project to provide extra software for the Red Hat distribution and got its name from Red Hat's "Shadowman" logo.

### Ubuntu

[Ubuntu](https://ubuntu.com/about) aims to share open source widely and is named after the African philosophy of ubuntu, which can be translated as "humanity to others" or "I am what I am because of who we all are."

## Moodle

The open source learning platform [Moodle](https://moodle.org/) is an acronym for "modular object-oriented dynamic learning environment." Moodle continues to be a leading platform for e-learning. There are nearly 104,000 registered Moodle sites worldwide.

Two other popular open source content management systems are Drupal and Joomla. Drupal's name comes from the Dutch word for "druppel" which means "drop." Joomla is an [anglicized spelling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joomla#Historical_background) of the Swahili word "jumla," which means "all together" in Arabic, Urdu, and other languages, according to Wikipedia.

## Mozilla

[Mozilla](https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/) is an open source software community founded in 1998. According to its website, "The Mozilla project was created in 1998 with the release of the Netscape browser suite source code. It was intended to harness the creative power of thousands of programmers on the internet and fuel unprecedented levels of innovation in the browser market." The name was a portmanteau of [Mosaic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosaic_(web_browser)) and Godzilla.

## Nginx

"Many tech people try to be cool and say it 'n' 'g' 'n' 'x'. Few actually did the basic actions of researching a bit more to find out very quickly that the name is actually supposed to be said as 'EngineX,' in reference to the powerful web server, like an engine." —Jean Sebastien Tougne

## Perl

Perl's founder Larry Wall originally named his project "Pearl." According to Wikipedia, Wall wanted to give the language a short name with positive connotations. Wall discovered the existing [PEARL](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PEARL_(programming_language)) programming language before Perl's official release and changed the spelling of the name.

## Piet and Mondrian

"There are two programming language named after the artist Piet Mondrian. One is called 'Piet' and the other 'Mondrian.' [David Morgan-Mar [writes](http://www.dangermouse.net/esoteric/piet.html)]: 'Piet is a programming language in which programs look like abstract paintings. The language is named after Piet Mondrian, who pioneered the field of geometric abstract art. I would have liked to call the language Mondrian, but someone beat me to it with a rather mundane-looking scripting language. Oh well, we can't all be esoteric language writers, I suppose.'" —Yuval Lifshitz

## Python

The Python programming language received its unique name from its creator, Guido Van Rossum, who was a fan of the comedy group Monty Python.

## Raspberry Pi

Known for its tiny-but-mighty capabilities and wallet-friendly price tag, the Raspberry Pi is a favorite in the open source community. But where did its endearing (and yummy) name come from? In the '70s and '80s, it was a popular trend to name computers after fruit. Apple, Tangerine, Apricot... anyone getting hungry? According to a [2012 interview](https://www.techspot.com/article/531-eben-upton-interview/) with founder Eben Upton, the name "Raspberry Pi" is a nod to that trend. Raspberries are also tiny in size, yet mighty in flavor. The "Pi" in the name alludes to the fact that, originally, the computer could only run Python.

## Samba

[Server Message Block](https://www.samba.org/) for sharing Windows files on Linux.

## ScummVM

[ScummVM](https://www.scummvm.org/) (Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion Virtual Machine) is a program that makes it possible to run some classic computer adventure games on a modern computer. Originally, it was designed to play LucasArts adventure games that were built using SCUMM, which was originally used to develop Maniac Mansion before being used to develop most of LucasArts's other adventure games. Currently, ScummVM supports a large number of game engines, including Sierra Online's AGI and SCI, but still retains the name ScummVM. A related project, [ResidualVM](https://www.residualvm.org/), got its name because it covers the "residual" LucasArts adventure games not covered by ScummVM. The LucasArts games covered by ResidualVM were developed using GrimE (Grim Engine), which was first used to develop Grim Fandango, so the ResidualVM name is a double pun.

## SQL

"You may know [SQL] stands for Structured Query Language, but do you know why it's often pronounced 'sequel'? It was created as a follow-up (i.e. sequel) to the original 'QUEL' (QUEry Language)." —Ken Gaillot

## XFCE

[XFCE](https://www.xfce.org/) is a popular desktop founded by [Olivier Fourdan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivier_Fourdan). It began as an alternative to CDE in 1996 and its name was originally an acronym for XForms Common Environment.

## Zsh

Zsh is an interactive login shell. In 1990, the first version of the shell was written by Princeton student Paul Falstad. He named it after seeing the login ID of Zhong Sha (zsh), then a teaching assistant at Princeton, and thought that it sounded like a [good name for a shell](http://www.zsh.org/mla/users/2005/msg00951.html).

There are many more projects and names that we have not included in this list. Be sure to share your favorites in the comments.

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