[Klug-general] Pronunciation of Linux

[james snyder]

Here here, Mike. No one could refute that Linus the character in "Peanuts"
is pronounced "Lee-nus".
When I met Linus at the Kernel summit in Cambridge with Karl Lattimer (not
to be confused with "nice Karl") Linus and all other members of the "Git"
group pronounced Linux as Lee-nux. Sorry KLUGGERS, but as far as I am
concerned, when I hear a person pronounce "Lie-nux" alarm bells go off and I
think that this person is from one of these camps:
a) secretly has a vested interest in using Micro$haft crapware
b) has only just discovered Linux
c) has clearly never met Linus nor knows who he is
d) is a newbie
e) is a half-hearted Linux user (with some very very notable exceptions)
f) is a Linux guru genius, but just prefers to pronounce is differently in
the spirit of being anti-establishment... and pedantic

I hope this rant does not spawn a mass debate, since I already have RSI from
too much wrist action. Ahem.


2009/6/30 Mike Evans <mike at tandem.f9.co.uk>

>
> There are only a few things certain about pronunciation in English.  One
> is that spelling and pronunciation are only vaguely related. Diversity
> is a great thing: so long as communication is successful.
>
> I note that there are also alternative pronunciations of Debian: with
> Deebian and Debbian being the most common, and Ubuntu seems to drift
> between Youbuntu and Oobuntu, depending on how authentically African the
> speaker wishes to sound.
>
> There is a long tradition of the English using pronunciation as a
> distinguishing identifier of class, education and origin.  Thus it is
> that a northerner will declare that has home is his kassle, whereas a
> southerner's home is his cahsle.  Both will think they are right and the
> other wrong, which gives each the opportunity to feel in some way
> superior to the other.
>
> Personally I choose the pronunciation favoured by Linus Torvalds, simply
> because he created the word.  I don't look down on people who prefer
> another pronunciation and will happily have a conversation pronouncing
> it one way with someone who pronounces it another. The people I do sneer
> at are the ones like the owner of our local copy shop.  When I said that
> I use Linnux she looked confused and then said 'oh you mean Lynux'.  But
> then - she is fat, sweaty and ugly as well as ignorant :)
>
> MikeE
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Kent mailing list
> Kent at mailman.lug.org.uk
> https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/kent
>



-- 
SKYPE ID: michael.james.snyder
SMS: +447914011154
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.lug.org.uk/pipermail/kent/attachments/20090630/1897d868/attachment.htm