> > Other than the fact Linux has a cool name, could someone explain why I should use Linux over BSD?
> No. That's it. The cool name, that is. We worked very hard on
creating a name that would appeal to the majority of people, and it
certainly paid off: thousands of people are using linux just to be able
to say "OS/2? Hah. I've got Linux. What a cool name". 386BSD made the
mistake of putting a lot of numbers and weird abbreviations into the
name, and is scaring away a lot of people just because it sounds too
technical.
On a related notion, I wonder how native English speakers were able to take ‘Windows’ seriously, back in the time when they didn't regularly encounter hundreds of apps with whatever names are left available. In the native language, the brain supposedly fires associations for you before you think consciously about what you hear. Like, do you browse window installation inventory in this program or what?
> No. That's it. The cool name, that is. We worked very hard on creating a name that would appeal to the majority of people, and it certainly paid off: thousands of people are using linux just to be able to say "OS/2? Hah. I've got Linux. What a cool name". 386BSD made the mistake of putting a lot of numbers and weird abbreviations into the name, and is scaring away a lot of people just because it sounds too technical.
— https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/comp.unix.pc-clone.32b...