Connotation analysis for Fedora Project codenames

seth vidal skvidal at fedoraproject.org
Fri Mar 23 15:56:50 UTC 2012


On Fri, 23 Mar 2012 08:33:00 -0700
Robyn Bergeron <rbergero at redhat.com> wrote:

> >>
> > I think we should drop the naming process altogether.
> >
> > For the following reasons:
> >
> > 1. the names do not serve any use
> I disagree; the theming for our wallpaper, as well as a moderate
> amount (though not always infused with ridiculous amounts of puns) of
> marketing material, take inspiration from the release name.

Do they? I guess I never formed a connection between the images and the
names.


> > 2. the names are a waste of time and effort to administer the
> > process
> It's a waste of time if nobody sees benefit in having a name. See
> above point.

So the only advantage out of the naming mechanism is helping with
artwork? Do we know if the art/design team cares?

> > 3. no one remembers the names.
> To be fair, people only remember the numbers because... well... we 
> learned how to count when we were young, in theory. :) But do people 
> look back and better remember the release where we did packagekit, 
> upstart, and firefox 3 as... "Oh yes, Fedora 9!" ... either? Probably
> not.

Except you can know that Fedora 9 was N years ago - roughly based on
the release cycle.

I cannot begin to tell you about Yarrow, though :)

> > 4. the names are potentially divisive.
> I don't think we should set the precedent of dodging the ball on
> things because they are potentially divisive. See: Core vs. extras,
> gnome 3, systemd, THIS VERY EMAIL THREAD, :)
> 

It's more of an evolutionary process. We shake off the parts we no
longer need and come out better for it. We do it all the time in the
distro itself. We get rid of things we aren't using, remove old code,
disused functionality, etc.

I know this seems like a radical thing but I really don't think it is.
I stopped participating or caring in the names a long time ago and from
asking around to some of my peers, I'm not alone.

However, and let me be very clear, it is not a significant enough thing
for me to expend much time arguing about. :) This will be my last email
on the subject.

-sv




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