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Linux on Jeopardy 416

Posted by CmdrTaco from the pronunciation-does-matter dept.
yesthatguy writes "Tonight's episode of Jepoardy! featured a question in the "Tech Business and Industry" category that asked which operating system was made by Linus Torvalds and can be obtained for free. The answer(question), of course: 'What is Linux?' An interinsting point I noticed...the kid (Teen Tournament) that gave the answer, pronounced the name wrong. Jeopardy usually will not give credit to a mispronunciation... " Please! No pronunciation holy wars! But that is pretty cool. Ya know you've hit the big time when you get a question on Jeopardy.
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Linux on Jeopardy More

Linux on Jeopardy

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  • Of course, it'd be cooler if I cared about jeopardy. The song is so annoying. Anyhoo, great to know the answer to one of the questions on that show, FINALLY...

    Target Practice
  • is it leen-ooks?
    lin-ix?
    line-ux?
    wtf?
  • Why is "LIN nux" considered the proper pronunciation? After all, Linus Torvalds named it after himself. Wouldn't that make it "LIE nux"?

    First post?

  • What is this? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    News for nerds? Stuff that matters?
  • its 'lee-nooks'

    with a short i

    wasnt this a poll a while back?
  • i never understand people who argue over pronumciation and then go on to write stuff like "r u goin 2 the store"
  • According to Linus, in an interview on ZDTV, "I don't care."
  • There was a debate about the pronounciation of Linux and Linus here before... I personally say both `lie-nucks' and `lin-ix' since I really don't care. But anyways... it's `Yet Another Linux Plug by the Media'
  • Hush, matt. Although you're right about it being lih-nucks. Everyone knows that. The easiest way to verify is to listen to Linus talk about it some time.. he pronounces it Lih-nucks. And I'm inclined to trust the man.

    what about u? r u inclined 2 trust linus?

    (whee.)

    regards,
    -efisher
    ---
  • Let's here it for pathetic self validation!!!

    Let Linux stand on its own merits. I could care less whether its it is on "Jepoardy" or not.

    This article gets a big fat yawn. . .
  • Think about it, we could replace Alex Trebek with Linus, replace the Jeopardy Logo with Tux, and have CmdrTaco and Hemos as the Judges(aka the guys that ring the wrong buzzer). We could ask things like "There are this many lines of code in the current stable release of the Linux Kernel", or "This distribution of Linux is the most open of them all"

  • What have you done? All that can come from this topic is a war on the pronuciation of Linux!!!
  • Because Linus said so.
    http://www.linux.org/info/index.html

    Look down in the middle of the page. =)

  • Pronunciation (Score:5)

    by rde ( 17364 ) on Thursday November 11, 1999 @03:00PM (#1540492)
    Jeez. Do you think Windows users argue like this?
    "It's a piece of shit"
    "No, it's a piece of shite"
    "You're both wrong, it's a pile of shit"
    "Actually..."

    Be grateful you can still count contending pronunciations without taking your socks off.
  • I have heard this a hundred times.. Does it matter how one pronounces Linux ?? My answer would be a YES. Now.. before you jump on me let me explain.

    Linux is growing. Its "followers" have constat wars is news grps etc about the best text editor, the best windows manager, the best distribution and so on. All healthy. But please, if you are using a software that runs the whole damn computer, you better pronounce it correctly. Let there be atleast two things that we agree upon, the first being that LInux is the best :0

    BTW how exactly do we pronounce Linux ?? Linux or 'Lenux' ??

    A rose is a rose but looses it charm when you call it 'shit' !

    Manifest
  • Of course the pronunciation of "Linus" depends on what language you're speaking.

    English: Lie nus
    Finnish: Lin oos
  • They should have done it as a video clue with Torvalds himself.
    And he could be flagrantly displaying a Transmeta coffee mug or something, just to screw with our minds.
  • Notice that jeopardy emphasized the free beer aspect rather than the free speech.

    Just a random observation on a random story.
  • Here in Chicago, I don't know anybody who doesn't refer to his name as the peanuts character. Just wanted to defend our pronunciation. You must be from the east coast.

  • Linus knows. (Score:3)

    by Booker ( 6173 ) on Thursday November 11, 1999 @03:07PM (#1540501) Homepage
    Pardon my arrogance, but I'd like to suggest that Linus probably knows how to pronounce it [kernel.org].
  • Yep. Linus doesn't use the American pronunciation of his name. The show did, though.
  • This is much cooler than the proposed superbowl commercial. just personal opinion of coarse, but the people who watch jeoparody seem to care more about computers than those who watch the superbowl. As the jeoparody is a game of intellect and the superbowl is one of brawn. So maybe we'd be better off if we skipped the whole superbowl idea and got commercials at some other time? like during jeoparody, or sponsored NOVA.

    matisse:~$ cat .sig
  • I think it's the dot.
  • You are mai new guroo. where do i sine up?

  • A rose is a rose but looses it charm when you call it 'shit' !

    And where does the charm go when it's loosed?
    ------------
    Michael Hall
    mphall@cstone.nospam.net

  • shows that computers, programmers, and industry heads are slowly starting to become part of mainstream culture. I remember about a month ago out school trivia team went to a tournament and a full bonus category about computer figures popped up, featuring questions about assorted people ranging from innovators like Torvalds (and others whom I forget) to businessmen like Steve Case and Andy Grove. I also notice computer acro questions are starting to become more popular in trivia competition, though unfortunately they tend to be mispronounced as well :)

  • Re:I don't get all the holy wars (Score:4)

    by Millennium ( 2451 ) on Thursday November 11, 1999 @03:09PM (#1540509)
    Nope, Linux Torvalds isn't pronounced like Linux on Peanuts. It's the Peanuts pronunciation which gave rise to the myth that it is pronounced "LINE-ux."

    Consider, by the way, that "Linux" is actually a dual pun. It plays both on Linus' name and Minix, the OS which inspired Linux. Minix is pronounced with a short i (like the first i in"mini"). Linus, as least in the context of Torvalds' first name, is also pronounced in this way. Therefore, why would Linux not also be pronounced with the same short i as both of its linguistic predecessors? Particularly since Linus himself pronounces it the same way he pronounces his name.

    As far as I'm concerned, the person who gave the OS its name gets to pick how it's correctly pronounced. But let's not get into a holy war over this.
  • LOL...this one made me cry!

  • FWIW, you can hear [tuxedo.org] how Linus pronounces Linux.

    More to the point, Jeopardy does not mark you wrong for unambiguous mispronunciations or spellings.
    --
  • Well, down under, it's LIN-ux (which is right, that is how Linus says it...)

  • Jeopardy's all well and good, but... (Score:3)

    by Mister Attack ( 95347 ) on Thursday November 11, 1999 @03:11PM (#1540513) Journal
    Well, you know you've _really_ hit the big time when you get on Wheel of Fortune. And after that, who knows? Maybe in the Showcase on The Price Is Right. Now _that_ would be prestige!
  • Of course, once this is compensated into my New England accent, doesn't this pronounce as "Line-ux"? Because I know I would pronounce his name the same way as the peanuts character.
  • No, it's not. Neither of them are pronounced the way you think.

    You will find a sample of Linus pronouncing his own name, as well as linux, on ftp.kernel.org
  • Okay, here's how it is : There are two pronunciations (according to Linus), one in English and one in Swedish. The English one, used by most, is Lie-Nuchs. The Swedish, and, many argue, purer one, is Lih-Nuchs. Some may argue that although it is best if one pronounces it in his native tongue, I believe that we owe it to Linus to pronounce it the way he and his people do : Lih-Nuchs.
  • oh so THAT'S what they play when i type sndconfig in redhat. Geesh i thought it was some sort of radio transmission from veitnam. I still can't make out anything of what he's saying, but it is nice to know what it is.

    matisse:~$ cat .sig
  • It should have been there a long time ago...

    I don't care about pronounciations. As long as I know what they're talking about or vice versa, I am happy. LILO is another one with a couple of possibilities, but don't tell me which one! I don't care! People know what I'm talking about.

    Of course a question like this would only be asked on a Teen Tournament. Face it, teens are more likely to know / care about this stuff than their elders. Why? I dunno. I suspect that it might have something to relate to the time they have to mess around with such things or how angry they get at their other operating system when it crashes in the middle of writing a report. Just guesses, considering that these are among my reasons. Perhaps it is also because the word 'cool' is used much more often by teens than by adults, and they have to find something to describe with it. No holy OS wars because of this, please!

    Speaking of publicity, my parents say that there was something about Linux on NPR, but I didn't hear it so I don't necessarily believe them. Somebody verify this. There was also a short interview with Red Hat's CEO, but I forget what network that was on. There's something for you to post about; I know you've been waiting a whole minute to find something. Why? Because you read this post! Okay, that was pointless.

    Kenneth Arnold

  • This question came up at a Q&A with Linus (as I'm sure it does at every Q&A with Linus) a little while back. He said that in Finland he's called "lee-nus", but in English speaking circles even he refers to himself as "lie-nus". And that he didn't care what people called the OS as long as they knew it was available to them. Isn't it all about choice anyway?

    So I hereby decree that although it may sound like I say "lie-nux", I am in fact saying "lee-nux" with a thick American accent.

  • that sounds goofy! i've been walking around saying it, and i'm sticking with lin-ucks, dammit!
  • Pardon my memory, but I've seen interviews where Linus states that he doesn't really care. :^P
  • of coarse if it was in the showcase EVERYONE would overbid as linux is free and you can only bid at $1.

    matisse:~$ cat .sig
  • Ffor people wondering why if his name is Linus that we pronounce it LINN-ucks, its because he pronounces his name LINN-us. There ya go :P

  • I was watching this teen tournament thing the other day. Some kid was given "The Pollen producing component of the plant," to reply to. His answer : What is the hymen? You could see Trebeck fighting the urge to burst out laughing.

    - Freehold, or maybe a rock.
  • The wild wild west ! :)

    In case you didnot notice, I said charm and not "quality'.

    Manifest
  • According to the WAV file referenced in another reply (on ftp.kernel.org somewhere) and to posts Linus has made himself (and the correct *FINNISH* pronounciation of his name), it's pronounced something like "Leenucks". I used to insist on "lineucks", now I say "lynnucks" because it's faster to say :). Of course, the instructor in my UNIX OS and UNIX Administration classes pronounces it correctly ("leenucks"), and boy is it hard to listen to :)
  • Who cares about correct pronunciation. Language is malleable and based upon the whims of society as a whole. New worlds enter and leave the vernacular daily. If enough people pronounce it line-ux, then that is how it will be pronounced. Personally, I call it line-ux. I think lynn-ux just sounds funny.

  • I don't know where in America you're from, but in Delaware and surrounding area it's pronounced lyn-ux.
  • I just saw an interview with torvalds on TV, and it sounded to me like he had nowhere the accent that I hear in the sound. He sounded more american, with a lot lighter voice. But then, so do a lot of people who spend a lot of time over here.

    I don't know if he said "LiNuX" at all, because about 2 minutes into the segment, the cable went out. Go figure. (as I systematically take out each Comcast office 50 miles around here... FWOOM!)

    (New Media News was the show)
  • No that's definately wrong.

    "Hey, what OS are you running?"

    "'I don't care.'"

    "No, really..."
  • Speaking of publicity, my parents say that there was something about Linux on NPR, but I didn't hear it so I don't necessarily believe them. Somebody verify this.
    My father said there was a feature on Linus and Linux, and this was several (>6) months ago.
  • Lets get our proximal scandinavian countries straight, eh?


    For my 2 cents:

    *Ideally we'd all call it Lee-nooks, after Lee-noos Torvalds, but thats kinda awkward.

    *If Linus were American, he'd pronounce his name Lie-nus.

    Thus:

    My American toungue calls it "Lie-nucks" after it's creator.

    But you won't get me correcting any other pronunciation.
    The 'net is a reading-based culture, so as long as we can all spell it right we're ok.

    --Andrew
  • That's just it. The combination of phonemes in "LEEN-ooks" occurs so rarely in English that it's rather awkward for a native English-speaker to say. The correct paraphrase is, if I'm not mistaken, "LINN-ucks," therefore both pronunciations are linguistically correct, given the differences in language. "LINE-ucks" is still way out there.
  • The Redhat interview is saw was on CNN's Moneyline sometime this weekend, they asked Bob Young about the MS case (who had a 6.0 box in the background, apparently they haven't upgraded the PR studio), he said his favorite remedy was a perpetual investigation. They also asked him about the Cobalt IPO (I think the interviewer thought it was a direct competitor), he said the more Linux companies the better. Redhat gets a lot of press since the IPO so the fact of a Redhat interview isn't really news.

    The latest linux story on NPR is here [npr.org]. It was a pretty well informed interview with John Dodge, the editor of PC Week. You can find archives for most NPR shows at www.npr.org [npr.org]. The first story I could find using their search engine was in April of 1998.


    --

  • The entire debate with the pronounciation of Linux is all really English's (and maybe German's) fault. It's that simple. Even when you try to explain the pronunciation in text, it does not work. Not even if you say something like 'short i' or 'long i.' To different people that means different things. To Americans, and other Native English speakers 'short i' means the i in little and 'long i' means the ie in lie.

    Whereas, in Romance languages, 'long i' means the ee in geek. Heck, even speakers of the same language don't agree. The British pronounce things differently than Americans.

    Also, grammar and spelling is different. Such as ' quote ' as opposed to American " quote ." And colour and theatre as opposed to color and theater.

    Case in point: This is all English's fault. I say we rm -rf /English/* right now. It will be the best for all of us. No more confusion. While we're at is let's just cp /Español/* /mnt/thing/backup and then rm -rf /* and then rcp /Español/* / to fix everything else too.

    Hasta luego!

    -El Señor Dragón al'JeRHombre Semidiós'de'Guerra


    (in case you didn't figure it out, that was a joke, it's Lord Dragon al'PiLMaN Dai'Shan en Español)

  • Well, yes, it is spelt 'Luxury Yacht' but it is pronounced 'Throat-Warbler Mangrove'.

  • Forget Linux (Score:5)

    by copito ( 1846 ) on Thursday November 11, 1999 @04:11PM (#1540559)
    If you really want a geeky pronunciation argument, try any of the following:

    csh
    tcsh
    lilo
    cache
    ~
    #
    !

    For the record I'm:

    cee-ess-aich
    teesh
    lie-low
    cash
    tild-ah, although I'm gravitating towards twiddle
    hash
    bang



    --
  • Linus is part of the Swedish speaking minority (6%) of Finland. Swedish is one of the two official languages of Finland. I found this out from esr's Rampantly Unofficial Linus Torvalds FAQ [tuxedo.org]
    --
  • Other Jeopardy mainstays include the many inventions of Buckminster Fuller and Esperanto. And now Linux. Be afraid.

    "He's canadian, no wonder he didn't get it right, what'd you expect?"

    "Ummm how about 'Linux, eh?'"
  • "...I mean 'What is Linux, eh?"
    --
  • see-shell
    tee-see-shell
    lie-low
    cash
    tilde
    hash or pound, depending on context (or when I'm feeling really funky, 'octothorpe' :)
    bang or exclamation point, again depending on context
    ---
    "'Is not a quine' is not a quine" is a quine.
  • He didn't.
    ---
    "'Is not a quine' is not a quine" is a quine.
  • out of curiosity, how exactly did they pronounce it? Linux...hmm, leeanux. lyinuck. Lennox? hmmm....kleenex?

  • Re:Forget Linux (Score:3)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 11, 1999 @04:55PM (#1540595)
    Nahhh, its:
    csh - Sea Shell
    tcsh - Tea See Shell
    lilo - Ok, you win
    cache - Here too...
    ~ - Til-dee
    # - Octothorpe or Pound (depending on my mood)
    ! - Damn, 3/6... That's pretty good!

    Yeah, you got it, ! and # on him till he hertz! Then he'll talk(1)!

    C picks C SHs by the C Shore.

    We'd better Lilo till they're gone...

    Watch out for me! I don't have an *!

    Oh oh, I might != be able to continue at this rate...

    When she told me to &, I didn't know she wanted her clothes full of dirt!

    Why a corn husk, when you can have a ksh?

    Sysadmin (About a home directory): I put him in /usr/local/bin/bash.

    Luser (50% lobotomy... Up to now): User? A local? You put him in a bin then you bashed him? After all the slashings? I'm phoning the police, your larting has gone too far!

    Stupid person at a computer store: A SCSI drive? Do you mean he sells drugs, hires hitmen, and does all the other dirty work, all from his car?

    Why have a 3 1/2" floppy when you can enjoy a 5 1/4"?

    A person new to computer electronics: Why does this book keep saying I need a PROM... I'm out of high-school, dammit!

    The exclamation of a Lamer/Loser in high-school: EPROM!

    At the end of a letter to Captain Blackbeard M., from his mates: IBM.

    A semi-popular rap-exclamation from the 80's: AAAAAAAMC.

    Well, I'm fresh out for today, I must have hit my Zenith(tm)...
  • I think there is a pronunciation HOWTO, which I read years ago.

    It gave good reasons why Lye-nucks is the correct pronunciation for English-speaking people. It was something like this:

    1. "Linux" is taken from Linus' name.
    2. English speakers pronounce the name Linus as "Lye-nuss" (or should ;-) ).
    3. Therefore, "Linux" should be pronounced as "Lye-nucks" by English speaking people.
    4. Lee-nooks would be the alternate correct pronunciation (based on how Linus prounounced his own name when he lived in Finland).
    5. There is no basis for the "Lin-nucks" pronunciation.

    Cheers. Don't flame too hard ;-)

  • Yeah, jeopardy was wrong but was is the contestant suppose to question?

    "What is the GNU... uh... Lignu.. hmmm... Oh! What is GNU's Not Linux!"

    I guess Linux is correct. One could have a liberal definition of 'system' I guess.

    ***Beginning*of*Signiture***
    Linux? That's GNU/Linux [gnu.org] to you mister!
  • > Although you're right about it being lih-nucks. Everyone knows that. The easiest way to verify is to listen to Linus talk about it some time.. he pronounces it Lih-nucks.

    That's the way I pronounce it too, except with a somewhat shortened i. But I have to admit that that the other side has a case too, at least for English, since English traditionally "enjoys" the effects of the Great Vowel Shift, which makes nice Continental words like Linus come out sounding like Lainus. [1]

    So maybe we can keep both parties happy (or at least offend them both equally) by saying that Lainux is the English pronunciation and Linux is the International pronunciation.

    I, being an Anglophone, justify using the International pronunciation on the grounds of being a citizen of the Linux community, as well as of an Anglophone nation.

    And BTW... for me, that Pauling guy is named Lainus, but that Torvalds guy is named Linus. Oh, the joys of language, it's idiosyncracies!

    [1] Except for an exceptional monopthongization of the English "long" i, which appears to have its epicenter in Muleshoe, Texas, radiating out with diminishing strength of effect from there. But the result is still nothing like the Continental pronunciation of Linu[sx].

    --
    It's October 6th. Where's W2K? Over the horizon again, eh?
  • Anybody remember the days when we were all excited to get a mention in the trade press?

    Man! we're obsessed! :(

    ***Beginning*of*Signiture***
    Linux? That's GNU/Linux [gnu.org] to you mister!
  • Ya know you've hit the big time when you get a question on Jeopardy.

    Ya, but the question was worth $1000 which means that it was supposed to be hard. If it had been worth been worth less that would mean you had really hit the big time.

  • Brain Panic
    (the fsck on reboot will be a bitch too)

    I say 'fisk' in case you're wondering.
    --

  • Re:Pronunciation (Score:3)

    by MrHat ( 102062 ) on Thursday November 11, 1999 @06:48PM (#1540666)
    Actually, Windows users have more advanced and far more complex pronunciation issues than any of the primitive *nix operating systems do.

    Take, for example, a case I encountered yesterday. While I exclaimed that Windows was really an "ass-smoking handicapped piece of crap" after it refused to boot, my boss, only a room away, interpreted windows as more of a "bloated, sheep-probing pile of crap" as the file server BSOD'd.

    These subtle linguistic variations prove the flexibility of Windows and demonstrate a truly superior design, especially when compared to the antiquated Unix architecture.

  • I've heart one engineer refer to a gigahert. As in "We downmodulated the signal from 30 gigahertz to one gigahert." With a hard g of course. I prefer a hard g since a soft g reminds me of "gigilo" (which I pronounce as giga-low with a soft g). I pronounce silicon both ways with a preference for silikhan. I pronounce GIF the Compuserve (and peanut butter) way.

    Fortunately, Webster's says that both a hard and soft g are ok for giga- [m-w.com]and that silikahn and silikin are both ok for silicon [m-w.com].

    --
  • "fisk"
    or when I'm feeling verbose
    "f-s-check"
    --
  • The Gods will frown on me, I made a spelling error in a pronunciation thread.
    --
  • You Americans are SO DAMN unknowledgeable about the world outside the fast food and coca cola zone...

    you seem to be forgetting the 'computing machine technology' zone...

    (well what would YOU call it? "computing zone" sounds stupid...)

    --Siva

    Keyboard not found.
  • There really doesn't need to be an arguement at all, for two reasons:

    o It would be stupid to argue about a little thing like that. People know what you mean.

    o For those that really do care, it can be easily settled by playing that sound file of Linus pronouncing it. It can be had in lots of places, and it plays when you use sndconfig to configure your sound card. He does use the short i version, but his foreign accent make it obvious why there is confusion here in the US but not there. He pronounces his name as something closer to "Leenus" (say it keeping your mouth only partly open) and says "Linux" exactly the same way as his name, changing only the consonant at the end, as in "Leenux".

    Saying it like that would sound weird here in the states, so most people use a short i.

    --
    grappler
  • Um, not to be a bitch, but in the linus WAV file, he says:

    "Hello, this is Leenus Torvalds and I pronounce leenux as leenux."

    So we're all wrong I guess. I say it as "LIE-nux" because the Americanization of the name Linus is "LIE-nus" and I live in Massachusetts, so that sounds about right to me.

    -----------

    "You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."

  • "A 32 bit extension and graphical shell for a 16 bit patch to an 8 bit operating system originally coded for a 4 bit microprocessor, written by a 2 bit company that can't stand 1 bit of competition."

    "What is Windows 95?"

    Ahhh... it's an oldie but a goodie. :) :)
  • To the tune of David Lee Roth's "Just a Gigolo" [iastate.edu] (actually a cover of Louis Prima song but I don't know the original)

    I'm just a gigabyte,
    everywhere I go
    people want to store
    stuff on me

    Toggle every bit
    I don't care if it
    is hard core porn or
    MP3s

    There will come a day
    I lose a crucial save
    then what will they say
    about me

    When the end comes I know
    they'll say just a gigabyte
    as life goes on
    without me

    'Cause I ain't got no parity
    no parity, no parity, one plus one is three
    I'm so slow and lossy
    slow and lossy, slow and lossy
    Won't some cheap coder
    come and make a RAID with me
    cause I ain't so bad.



    --
  • from the almighty Jargon file [tuxedo.org]

    The ANSI/CCITT standard is surrounded by suck/blows and the INTERCAL [tuxedo.org] substandard is surrounded by U turn/U turn backs

    ^ Common: hat; control; uparrow; caret; . Rare: chevron; [shark (or shark-fin)]; to the (`to the power of'); fang; pointer (in Pascal).

    & Common: ; amper; and. Rare: address (from C); reference (from C++); andpersand; bitand; background (from sh(1)); pretzel; amp. [INTERCAL called this `ampersand'; what could be sillier?]

    | Common: bar; or; or-bar; v-bar; pipe; vertical bar. Rare: ; gozinta; thru; pipesinta (last three from UNIX); [spike].

    . Common: dot; point; ; . Rare: radix point; full stop; [spot].

    () Common: l/r paren; l/r parenthesis; left/right; open/close; paren/thesis; o/c paren; o/c parenthesis; l/r parenthesis; l/r banana. Rare: so/already; lparen/rparen; ; o/c round bracket, l/r round bracket, [wax/wane]; parenthisey/unparenthisey; l/r ear.

    {} Common: o/c brace; l/r brace; l/r squiggly; l/r squiggly bracket/brace; l/r curly bracket/brace; . Rare: brace/unbrace; curly/uncurly; leftit/rytit; l/r squirrelly; [embrace/bracelet].

    [] Common: l/r square bracket; l/r bracket; ; bracket/unbracket. Rare: square/unsquare; [U turn/U turn back].

    Common: ; bra/ket; l/r angle; l/r angle bracket; l/r broket. Rare: from/{into, towards}; read from/write to; suck/blow; comes-from/gozinta; in/out; crunch/zap (all from UNIX); [angle/right angle].

    --
  • from the almighty Jargon file [tuxedo.org]

    The ANSI/CCITT standard is surrounded by suck/blows and the INTERCAL [tuxedo.org] substandard is surrounded by U turn/U turn backs

    ^ Common: hat; control; uparrow; caret; <circumflex>. Rare: chevron; [shark (or shark-fin)]; to the (`to the power of'); fang; pointer (in Pascal).

    & Common: <ampersand>; amper; and. Rare: address (from C); reference (from C++); andpersand; bitand; background (from sh(1)); pretzel; amp. [INTERCAL called this `ampersand'; what could be sillier?]

    | Common: bar; or; or-bar; v-bar; pipe; vertical bar. Rare: <vertical line>; gozinta; thru; pipesinta (last three from UNIX); [spike].

    . Common: dot; point; <period>; <decimal point>. Rare: radix point; full stop; [spot].

    () Common: l/r paren; l/r parenthesis; left/right; open/close; paren/thesis; o/c paren; o/c parenthesis; l/r parenthesis; l/r banana. Rare: so/already; lparen/rparen; <opening/closing parenthesis>; o/c round bracket, l/r round bracket, [wax/wane]; parenthisey/unparenthisey; l/r ear.

    {} Common: o/c brace; l/r brace; l/r squiggly; l/r squiggly bracket/brace; l/r curly bracket/brace; <opening/closing brace>. Rare: brace/unbrace; curly/uncurly; leftit/rytit; l/r squirrelly; [embrace/bracelet].

    [] Common: l/r square bracket; l/r bracket; <opening/closing bracket>; bracket/unbracket. Rare: square/unsquare; [U turn/U turn back].

    < > Common: <less/greater than>; bra/ket; l/r angle; l/r angle bracket; l/r broket. Rare: from/{into, towards}; read from/write to; suck/blow; comes-from/gozinta; in/out; crunch/zap (all from UNIX); [angle/right angle].

    --
  • I call it Line-ux as well, because when I first saw the word, my brain made this simple association. Linus, in the US, usually pronounced Line-us. Linux, spelled almost the same, replacing the s with x, therefore it should be pronounced the same. Thus, Line-ux. Do you pronounce Linus Lynn-us?

    It will always be thus in my mind. No matter what anyone says. If you say Lynn-us follows the rules of English or some such more closely, remember this. Linus, who named the damn thing in the first place, doesn't speak english as his first language. Anyhoo.
  • Is there anyone besides myself out there that still says "string" whenever they see "$"?

    This comes from spending WAY too much time coding in Basic back in the day!

    I only do it if there is a $ at the end of a word though. Q$ is "Q STRING" to me.

    -=-=-=-=-=- POOP -=-=-=-=-=-

  • Re:They mispronounced Linus as well (Score:3)

    by msaari ( 96654 ) on Thursday November 11, 1999 @10:27PM (#1540734) Homepage

    If I wanted to provocate heated arguing, I would say that is just so typical American attitude.

    But I am not saying that, I am just saying that at least here in Finland (where Linus is from, too) we usually pronounce names like they should be pronounced in their own language. I pronounce American names American way (as well as I can, of course) and Swedish names Swedish way and so on.

    Linus is, in this case, Finnish name, so Finnish pronounciation would be preferred if you are being considerate.

  • I was struck by the wording "can be obtained for free".

    It's an example of how the general public just haven't been told that GPL'd software is free in that it "has freedom", rather than "can be obtained gratis".

    People, when you see this kind of thing, *please* make a point of informing people, so they'll know in future.
    --
  • I thought it was gigavolts.
    ---
    "'Is not a quine' is not a quine" is a quine.
  • actualy ! is ping for me

    hash-ping-slash-user-slash-bin-shhhhhhh....

  • Wrongo (Score:2)

    by Otto ( 17870 )
    csh - Sea Shell
    tcsh - Tee Sea Shell
    lilo - Lie-Low
    cache - Cah-Shay (It's french, damnit)
    ~ - Til-Dah
    # - hash
    ! - exclamation point (although lately i've used bang like the rest of the world)

    BTW, cache must be cah-shay, because:
    a) it's french (at least originally)
    b) you can't say CASH because if you're working on an e-commerce system things become confusing really quickly.


    ---
  • or as I prefer in my Tolkien-esque mentality
    Mordeth?????
    *OK I'M OPENING UP A WHOLE CAN OF WORMS ON THAT ONE*
    at least for those who know how to translate Quenya...
    OK as long as I'm rambling, is it Tol-ken or Tol-KEY-enn????
    OK OK Grossly offtopic, but isn't most of this thread?
  • hmm...I always thought tilde was pronounced til-dAy

    like an e with an accent ague
  • what is with til-dah...I thought it was til-dAy, as in the french e with an accent ague. I say cache "cash" because saying cashay sounds dumb to me, but if you're going to say cashay, you might as well say tilday
  • Kleenex...I love it...somebody make a distro...
  • yes gif is jif...i've never like it with a hard g...reminds me of saying integer with a hard g...just sounds wrong
  • Actually, I've heard the /correct/ way to say the "giga" prefix is with a soft "g", like "jigga". Dr. Emmett Brown from Back To The Future corroborates this.
  • How about Greed (aka Ego in the free software world)
    or maybe "Who wants to be a millionaire" (aka "Who wants to be broke on a diet of pizza and coke")
  • 5. There is no basis for the "Lin-nucks" pronunciation.

    6. "Lin-icks" is a subtle variant on #5.

    I am fairly confident #6 came into use because it rhymes with Unix (you-nicks) and Minix (Min-icks), both of which Linux has as ancestors.

    (Personally, I use #6, mainly because it is what I heard first, but that's just me.)
  • Well if his name is "Linus", not "LIEnus", and the OS was named after him, I'd assume it would be called "Linux", not "LIEnux". In the US, Linus, the name, is pronounces "LIEnus" (see Peanuts cartoons), so perhaps us Americans are all confused and insist on calling is LIEnux. I say Linux. To do otherwise would be /uncivilized/ ;)
  • "Remember, it's spelled N-E-T-S-C-A-P-E, but it is pronounced Mozilla!"
  • I personally pronounce it LIN-ucks because IMHO it's just easier to say. Therefore in the tradition of tab completions......
  • hmm...I say "eff-sick"
    I guess that could stand for "f*ing-sick"
  • Certainly, gratis is a side-effect of libre.


    ... but you could also have downloaded IE5 for "free" as in "free beer". But you wouldn't be allowed/able to modify it and pass it on to someone else, the way you are with Slackware.

    In reply to the other two posts - it's true that the Jeopardy question was correct. I was pointing out the emphasis built in to the question -- both free speech and free beer are parts of the Free Software appeal, and most people don't get exposed to the Free Speech side of the coin.
    --

  • I say it with a long "i" because with a short "i"
    it sounds like "lennox" which is my mom's china pattern.

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