Wiki source for MageiaNameOrigin
from https://mageia.org/pipermail/mageia-discuss/20100920/000315.html by misc (mostly)
===How to pronounce Mageia name===
well see [[Blog20100918MageiaLaunched Mageia launched]] and [[Blog20100924MageiaSomeMotto a motto for Mageia]]
Some history about choosing the name Mageia - μαγεία in greek ;-)
===Where does Mageia come from?===
> I must have missed some posting that explains "mageia"!
> What is the origin of this name, please?
There was some peoples (primarily people at the origin of the fork) who proposed some names (I estimated to 40/50 proposals), and then we removed all that were not suitable :
~- already used on .org domain name (nebula, for example)
~- unsuitable because it was too funny and not professional, ie mostly private joke in French (tartopom, for example).
~- trademarked by checking inpi.fr for the various class of use we wanted (i.e. while having a name trademarked for wine was not a issue, a name used in book edition could have been), for example, toucan was proposed, but this is trademarked in France.
~- trademarked in the rest of the world.
~- already used by a old linux distribution, (diamond linux)
~- too similar to some big name in computing field (ubun3)
~- already used by another software or company (nexodus) without being trademarked
~- already used by people who could have enough money to sue (mango) even in a different domain
~- unsuitable and seen as offensive in languages we check (of course, with 6900 languages on the planet, chances are high that every possible name can be funny for at least one person, but problem is when there is a lot more than one), for example mirably (too similar to miserably)
~- not refused by ennael (as I proposed ennalinux :) )
~- not too similar to Mandriva stuff (some people proposed ""BlueBird"", which I liked a lot, except this was the codename of Mandrake 8.2, and traktopel, which was 8.0)
~- not too long
~- implicitly, we also tried to avoid everything outside of ascii (even if some people proposed a chinese name, they will recognize themselves). I say implictly because almost everything was ascii.
We also tried to get a name which could be used for design (i.e. we try to avoid turd linux), with name not already taken everywhere, with .com available, and with a possible good catch phrase but we had to relax these checks, as the twitter account was not available, and as the .com domain name was already taken (but that's not a issue, IMHO). And I
think no one thought of the design/catchphrase stuff in the last run.
And so basically, after removing more than 95% of the various proposals, only 2 names survived after the selection. And we voted to keep one (and no, I will keep the other one secret).
Of course, this explanation is less sexy than the other one about "this come from greek", which are true too, but I want to highlight that choosing a name is neither easy or as fun as it sound. And that we didn't start by saying "wow, greek is a cool language, let's find a word from it".
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CategoryMageiaInfo
===How to pronounce Mageia name===
well see [[Blog20100918MageiaLaunched Mageia launched]] and [[Blog20100924MageiaSomeMotto a motto for Mageia]]
Some history about choosing the name Mageia - μαγεία in greek ;-)
===Where does Mageia come from?===
> I must have missed some posting that explains "mageia"!
> What is the origin of this name, please?
There was some peoples (primarily people at the origin of the fork) who proposed some names (I estimated to 40/50 proposals), and then we removed all that were not suitable :
~- already used on .org domain name (nebula, for example)
~- unsuitable because it was too funny and not professional, ie mostly private joke in French (tartopom, for example).
~- trademarked by checking inpi.fr for the various class of use we wanted (i.e. while having a name trademarked for wine was not a issue, a name used in book edition could have been), for example, toucan was proposed, but this is trademarked in France.
~- trademarked in the rest of the world.
~- already used by a old linux distribution, (diamond linux)
~- too similar to some big name in computing field (ubun3)
~- already used by another software or company (nexodus) without being trademarked
~- already used by people who could have enough money to sue (mango) even in a different domain
~- unsuitable and seen as offensive in languages we check (of course, with 6900 languages on the planet, chances are high that every possible name can be funny for at least one person, but problem is when there is a lot more than one), for example mirably (too similar to miserably)
~- not refused by ennael (as I proposed ennalinux :) )
~- not too similar to Mandriva stuff (some people proposed ""BlueBird"", which I liked a lot, except this was the codename of Mandrake 8.2, and traktopel, which was 8.0)
~- not too long
~- implicitly, we also tried to avoid everything outside of ascii (even if some people proposed a chinese name, they will recognize themselves). I say implictly because almost everything was ascii.
We also tried to get a name which could be used for design (i.e. we try to avoid turd linux), with name not already taken everywhere, with .com available, and with a possible good catch phrase but we had to relax these checks, as the twitter account was not available, and as the .com domain name was already taken (but that's not a issue, IMHO). And I
think no one thought of the design/catchphrase stuff in the last run.
And so basically, after removing more than 95% of the various proposals, only 2 names survived after the selection. And we voted to keep one (and no, I will keep the other one secret).
Of course, this explanation is less sexy than the other one about "this come from greek", which are true too, but I want to highlight that choosing a name is neither easy or as fun as it sound. And that we didn't start by saying "wow, greek is a cool language, let's find a word from it".
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CategoryMageiaInfo