[9fans] names

[Digby Tarvin digbyt@acm.org]

>
>>>Presumably the name change was a marketing decision, given that
>>>the system was going commercial, the cost of source was being
>>>increased by no small amount, and 'Plan 9' doesn't sound like
>>>a marketable name.
>
>i'd be quite surprised if the name `brazil' had been chosen by marketing.
>
>if people can sell systems called `vrtx' or `VxWorks', or `Jini', i'm sure
>the name `Plan 9' is the least of the marketing problems.
>
Actually, I think marketing people prefer names that are either
acronyms or totally meaningless. It avoids preconceptions and
is probably easier to trade mark.

I agree that 'Brazil' doesn't sound like it was thought up by
marketing, but I bet the pin stripe brigade didn't like the
movie reference in 'Plan 9'.

My guess would be that someone in marketing said 'Plan 9 is a silly
name, pick something else', and 'Brazil' just happened to be the last
cult movie that the technical guys had seen...

Hope the marketing people don't read this - they probably thought
'Brazil'  was named after a geographic location, which is no doubt
acceptible because Microsoft had set a precedent :-)

Regards,
DigbyT
-- 
Digby R. S. Tarvin                                              digbyt@acm.org
http://www.cthulhu.dircon.co.uk