From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 16:22:03 +0100
From: Digby Tarvin digbyt@acm.org
Subject: [9fans] names
Topicbox-Message-UUID: 81a2bc9e-eac8-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025
Message-ID: <19980922152203.IJ9M-RDo5YF1kgW5iESXGjBQDsP7U79VUixUuNba7JM@z>

>
>>>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