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Free software has some glib naming conventions (lemmy.nz)

submitted 10 months ago by flamingos@feddit.uk to c/programmer_humor@programming.dev

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Toot

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[-] dontsayaword@piefed.social 285 points 10 months ago

and the g in gnu stands for gnu

[-] Klear@quokk.au 104 points 10 months ago

So if I'm getting it right, gobject is short for gnugnu(...)gnuimptklibobject.

[-] pennomi@lemmy.world 43 points 10 months ago

gnuplestiltskin

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[-] marcos@lemmy.world 15 points 10 months ago

Following the modern C conventions, the text following the series of (gnu) doesn't matter and you can write anything you want there.

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[-] mech@feddit.org 67 points 10 months ago

Fun fact: The K in GNU stands for Kernel.

[-] Hupf@feddit.org 18 points 10 months ago

KNURD

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[-] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 54 points 10 months ago

Then what does the g in gnu stand for?

[-] Zink@programming.dev 102 points 10 months ago

you're not gonna believe this...

[-] jaybone@lemmy.zip 31 points 10 months ago

I’ve got g’news for you…

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[-] QBertReynolds@sh.itjust.works 32 points 10 months ago

I think this is sarcasm, but just in case it isn't... GNU is a recursive acronym for "GNU's Not Unix".

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[-] mech@feddit.org 22 points 10 months ago

Gary

[-] cypherix93@lemmy.world 14 points 10 months ago

as in the inventor of chess, THE Gary Chess?

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[-] merc@sh.itjust.works 21 points 10 months ago

Yeah, they missed the best part.

GNU stands for GNU's Not Unix, which is a recursive acronym. And, when pronounced properly (like the animal) the G is silent. The entire Linux ecosystem has words that start with G based on an acronym where G essentially comes from nowhere, and isn't actually pronounced.

[-] rocnat@lemmy.world 17 points 10 months ago

Well, I dont wanna start a debate, but the official website of GNU indicate that the "g" in GNU isn't silent.

So it depends on whether you want to pronounce it "properly" or as it was intended.

The name “GNU” is a recursive acronym for “GNU's Not Unix!”; it is pronounced as one syllable with a hard g, like “grew” but with the letter n instead of r.

https://www.gnu.org/gnu/pronunciation.en.html

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[-] zqwzzle@lemmy.ca 105 points 10 months ago

Is it pronounced gnu or jnu?

[-] slothrop@lemmy.ca 100 points 10 months ago

Are you gnu here?

[-] zqwzzle@lemmy.ca 44 points 10 months ago

Jnu enough to stoke an ancient flame war for my personal entertainment.

[-] slothrop@lemmy.ca 19 points 10 months ago

Yer such a wildebeest!

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[-] Klear@quokk.au 19 points 10 months ago

You can easily answer this for yourself by looking up what the G stands for.

Wait...

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[-] myotheraccount@lemmy.world 68 points 10 months ago

Does the g in gspot also stand for gnu?

[-] 3abas@lemmy.world 69 points 10 months ago

Believe it or not, yes.

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[-] Hadriscus@jlai.lu 16 points 10 months ago

it actually stands for garam masala

[-] kubica@fedia.io 68 points 10 months ago

A topic with a a lot of gnuances.

[-] Masterkraft0r@discuss.tchncs.de 65 points 10 months ago

and the g in gnu also stands for gnu

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[-] grue@lemmy.world 52 points 10 months ago

gnusnotuniximagemanipulationtoolkitlibraryobject

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[-] DupaCycki@lemmy.world 40 points 10 months ago

In case you were wondering the 'w' in 'wine' stands for 'wine', and the full acronym is 'Wine Is Not an Emulator'. What do you think the 'w' in 'Wine Is Not an Emulator' stands for?

[-] toynbee@lemmy.world 19 points 10 months ago

I once tried to play "PHP" in Scrabble and argued that it should be infinite points.

The opponent didn't agree.

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[-] cogman@lemmy.world 17 points 10 months ago

As a younger teen trying to get starcraft running on my linux box, my parents were definitely upset when they saw me browsing "winehq". They thought I was trying to get booze shipped to our house :D

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[-] velindora@lemmy.cafe 35 points 10 months ago

I wish we knew some new gnu jokes.

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[-] raman_klogius@ani.social 35 points 10 months ago

Things to do on Christmas:

Unwrap gifts ❌
Unwrap acronyms ✔️

[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 28 points 10 months ago

I.......I lost track of what just happened. G stands for......something, I imagine.

[-] ghen@sh.itjust.works 25 points 10 months ago

Jraphics

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[-] Strawberry@lemmy.blahaj.zone 18 points 10 months ago

Well it kind of stands for nothing, because at the center of this onion is GNU, which is recursive. It stands for "GNU's Not UNIX", so the G in GNU stands for GNU.

[-] AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net 16 points 10 months ago

(((gnu)imp)tk)lib)object)

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[-] Kolanaki@pawb.social 28 points 10 months ago

I remember a time when almost every category of tool had something named "Yet Another [Thing]" because there were already so many options to choose from when they decided to make their own.

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[-] Vinylraupe@lemmy.zip 27 points 10 months ago

Gnus and gnomes can break my bones?

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[-] TheJesusaurus@sh.itjust.works 24 points 10 months ago

Never thought about it and I'm gonna go back to not thinking about it

[-] ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 21 points 10 months ago

Opportunity missed in not calling it GnObject.

[-] Phoenix3875@lemmy.world 21 points 10 months ago

You've been gnomed meme

[-] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 19 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

And this really exposes a major challenge with FOSS.

Names have meaning - it's why Office is called Office.

This gnu naming isn't much of an issue, because this is stuff only technical folks handle. But if we want end-users to embrace things, we need meaningful names - meaningful to them.

Whenever I tell my friends or family to install Jellyfin so they can access my media, the look on their face says it all.

MediaMonkey - alright, I get it (yea, not FOSS)

Plex? OK, if someone then says "think MultiPlex Theaters", you get it. (Also not FOSS)

Jellyfin? What is that? Jam on a sharkfin?

These work really well:

Resilio SYNC (Yeah, not FOSS, but the name makes sense)

SyncThing (FOSS)

FolderSync (not FOSS)

Notice a trend here?

I have a printed spreadsheet for all the software I use - if I haven't touched a service for a couple months, I'll forget the meaningless name.

[-] BlueKey@fedia.io 47 points 10 months ago

Counterarguments:

Chrome
Edge
Sky
Adobe Acrobat
Outlook

All wellknown programs or services where the name has no relation to the purpose.

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[-] db2@lemmy.world 17 points 10 months ago

Also glibc

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[-] Jayjader@jlai.lu 16 points 10 months ago

Banger title

[-] Jankatarch@lemmy.world 15 points 10 months ago

Oh so what's g in grep and git stand for?

[-] who@feddit.org 14 points 10 months ago

Global, and Linus.

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[-] rockerface@lemmy.cafe 14 points 10 months ago

You've been gnomed

[-] Shanmugha@lemmy.world 14 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

gobject [Gobject]

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this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2025

1200 points (99.6% liked)

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