“Windows Threshold/XP/9/10”, “OS X Yosemite” are comparable to “Ubuntu“, not Linux.
NT & -Darwin- [Edit: You're right LukeShu, XNU] are the Linux equivalents, they're the names of the kernels and not supposed to be consumer friendly.
Thank fucking God. I loathe version names. Place these in release date order: Lion, Snow Leopard, and Tiger. Now, place these in release order: 10.6, 10.7, and 10.8. Which do you find communicated more useful information?
I find Intrepid Ibex, Gutsy Gibbon, Feisty Fawn, Hardy Heron, etc. to be quite sortable.
More brand awareness for open source projects == good.
At least that's how it worked in commercial software. Now the names have taken on a life of their own.
Not that such a thing isn't practically inevitable for a project the scale of the Linux kernel.
That was just a codename. Vista and XP (and ME?) are actual examples.
2015 Year of the Linux Desktop, obviously.
In his own words, he keeps naming things after himself.
(Although that's not entirely accurate. Linux was named by the guy who uploaded it to the ftp site; Linus' original name for it was Freax. (A 'Free' 'Unix'; the 'x' at the end being de rigueur for a Unix variant.) Hooray for opinionated people who just wantonly change names with no regard for the creator's desire, I suppose.)
OSX Yosemite
Linux "Hurr durr I'ma sheep"
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In some ways it's comforting that such an intergral part of all of our lives doesn't have to be branded and packaged in a way that's stylistic. It's nice knowing that this truly is a community project, and that it's an effort of people - not some megacorp who needs to market it to the highest amount of people possible.
Great work everyone who worked on this.