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Comment by Grazester | Hacker News Reader

I feel like I wouldn't use this based on the name alone. How do I say it? forward slash ee forward slash? I don't understand why anyone would think it was a good idea to name it this!

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When I see slash letter slash I think "a board on 4chan". In this case, it happens to be a pornographic board.

Bad name all around.

Hey, at least it isn't a political board or something. That would be much worse.

My immediate reaction was that it was some sort of 4chan project, tounge-in-cheek named after their softcore porn board (also named "/e/").

I'd wager I'm not the only one thinking that.

Careful, your powerlevel is showing.

I don't understand either; especially the fact that no one seemed to have done any research on any existing usage of /e/. The only explanation that makes sense is they were deliberately referencing the 4chan board, which is indeed a place best visited with privacy.

At least they didn't call it /b/.

/e/ sells smartphones preloaded with /e/ OS through its sister company Murena:

https://murena.com/products/smartphones/

It would make sense for /e/ to rebrand to Murena OS, if they're willing to change their name.

I have been following this project for years. I think they lost their original name to a copyright claim (the claim seemed a stretch, but whatever). /e/ was supposed to be the temp name, and they have forever been discussing how it needs to change.... Not sure why it has never happened.

There is nothing more permanent than a temporary solution --some genius

My internal monologue pronounces it as "ecchi".

Nno, what are you doing step-phone!?

Did no-one else immediately think of (or relate it to) Enlightenment?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlightenment_(software)

Absolutely - and Carsten kind of worked / works in this space.

People should just call it Slashy Slash...

A solid product name is important for marketing, to be sure.

However, it's also a way that native English folks prejudice against foreign products that are arguably very useful and valuable.

I'm not saying you're wrong in doing what everyone does and allowing the marketing naming to sway your decision. However, I would gently suggest that you take a more critical approach and evaluate the actual product instead of letting something as simple as naming deter you from using a product.

After all, kubernetes is complicated and stupid sounding, but we can just rebrand it to "Google Cloud" or whatever and people will love it. Same can be done for /e/... they'll just call it "NextPhone" or some other catchy name.

something named /e/ has literally no obvious means of pronunciation in any human language. This really is on a different level of stupid for a name.

You mention Kubernetes. I raise you Microsoft Kaizala. That is such a stupid name in English even though i recognise and know the language it is from - Marathi.

Naming is a delicate game and there are numerous examples of brand names that transcend language - Ikea, Nissan, Mitsubishi and so on.

but but, /ɪˈkeːa/!

edit: hmm... that settles it then: the pronunciation is simply, /e/. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//e/

I don't immediately understand why Kaizala is a stupid name, in or out of English.

I see how you latched onto the bad Kubernetes example and clearly ignored the “discounting non-English products” part.

I’ll grant you my Kubernetes example was bad but I have no idea what you’re getting at with Microsoft Kaizala. Probably cause I’ve never heard of it or Marathi.

I think it’s understandable that people judge a name, but at the same time, judging can be a form of discrimination. I feel it’s important to ask myself how I might be biased when I make off the cuff judgements based on just a name.

Also, I think the reason Nissan, Mitsubishi, etc transcended languages is because the product was good even if the name was different or weird for the time. People saw the product was good and didn’t care what it was called.

the original name was eelo. then they discovered that eelo was a trademark owned by someone else. /e/ was a stopgap measure, while they were looking for a new name. already some years ago they said they had a new name, but they were working to make sure the name was rock solid (trademarking it in several jurisdictions i guess).

i think murena is that new name. i don't know why they don't use that for the OS. but i guess it's because once you have a brand, it's difficult to change. maybe over time when murena is more well known they will try to rebrand the OS too.

branding is hard. rebranding is even harder. especially if you don't have a large marketing budget.

Murena sounds like an IUD.

Every time I see it, I just call it e. Why deal with the cognitive overhead of trying to figure out a shit name?

and how do I look it up on google if I need help with something?

A lot of websites (including TFA) are calling it "/e/ OS", which seems to work fine for searches.

I thought it might be referencing an upside down G.

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