What's the meaning behind the "names" for the Beta distributions?
The origin of each of the code names are:
Jim Hall:
- Orlando (Beta1)
At the time that I created the first Beta distribution for FreeDOS (the first distribution to actually have an install program, rather than being just a huge zip file) I was about to take a vacation to see my brother. Since he lives in Orlando, FL I thought it would be cool to name the distribution based on that trip.
- Marvin (Beta2)
I was starting to wax nostalgic for FreeDOS's roots. When I started the FreeDOS Project, I was a physics student at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. Marvin was a VAX system that was being de-commissioned at about the time I announced FreeDOS.
- Ventura (Beta3)
Jesse "The Body" Ventura became Jesse "The Governor" Ventura not long before the Beta3 release. I live in Minnesota, and Jesse is my governor. Oh me.
- Lemur (Beta4)
I've always wanted to have a mascot for the FreeDOS Project (it's a gimmick.) Linux has the penguin, BSD has the daemon, and GNU has the gnu. I've never pushed the idea of officially adopting a FreeDOS mascot because I didn't want to get distracted by the noise that would create. Not when I could be hacking code. I guess naming the Beta4 the "Lemur" distribution was my way of adopting a mascot when we really didn't. Plus, I've always thought lemurs looked cool.
- Lara (Beta5)
Named after famous adventure archaeologist Lara Croft from the very cool Tomb Raider games.
- Midnight (Beta6)
Jim's cat (well one of his four, Midnight, Murphy, Vita, and Linus) I suppose?
KJD:
- Spears (Beta7)
It's "Spears", as in "Britney". [Alternatively, representing distributions spearheaded by someone new.]
- Nikita (Beta8)
La Femme Nikata
Bernd Blaauw:
- Methusalem (Beta9)
ancient person who lived a 1000 years. The name thus refers to the long period between the release
of [Beta8] and [Beta8 Hot release 1], and the release date for Beta9 (about 1.5 years).
It also signifies the long wait for a FreeDOS 1.0 distribution, after 10 years.
Thus, hopefully by June 29, 2004, there will be a FreeDOS 1.0 distribution.
(still quite some work - see http://www.freedos.org/news/v1.0/ for more info)
(KJD)
And for the curious, the origin of names of some of my other distributions:
- Willow (Ripcord non-versioned releases)
Let's just say Elora Danan; otherwise it refers to the incredibly hot Alyson Hannigan
which you may recall as the kid in My Stepmother's an Alien, or perhaps more
recently in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the T.V. series) as Willow Rosenberg.
