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Comment by hkyeti | Hacker News Reader

Couldn't see any other comments about it, but close to a third of Indians are vegetarian not to mention all of us who don't partake in meat for various reasons (ethical, environmental, health etc). Unless the goal was to appeal to the anti-PC crowd, perhaps a more welcoming name?

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Do you think Mormons object to coding in Java? Do vegetarians only use bash and zsh because fish is offensive? Do Muslims refuse to deploy snort because their mascot is a pig? Do Christians avoid FreeBSD because of its devil or Unixes as a whole because of daemons?

The only people who will be offended are those who seek to be (and even better: if they're offended on behalf of others which is one of the most patronising behaviours imaginable)

Names are important. For what it's worth, the name 'beef' is peculiar to me. At first I thought it was a joke language like Brainfuck or ArnoldC. Java, fish, snort and cartoon devils are not nearly as culturally charged on many levels as dead cow flesh and all it invokes both good and bad. Where do you draw the line? A programming language called 'Christ'? 'Penis'? 'Dogmeat'? I'm sure you can think of some less obviously taboo. The only people who will be offended are those who seek to be, but that doesn't mean the name doesn't matter.

Java is also a place (yes I know coffe cups are much part of the imagery). Fish swims in the ocean. Pig is an animal. These do not really compare.

Your half right about the devils.

Beef however is per definition a cow killed to be eaten.

As far as I’m concerned beef is reddish organic matter. No cow has to be involved (though they often are).

Wouldn’t reddish organic matter just be “red meat”? Or do you consider, for example, lamb to be a type of beef?

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