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Comment by happyweasel | Hacker News Reader

IMHO, Deutsche Linux-Distribution (DLD) was the first german linux distribution (first release in 1992).

So it's not just a meme that Germans like to put "Deutsche" in front of every product/company name, it's the reality. How imaginative, the marketing departments who come up with these names must be making bank.

I mean, Americans put "National" in front of everything. At least the German version suggests some level of awareness of a world beyond the borders.

National is generic, but many companies in the U.S. include America in their name.

Last time Germans put a National in front of an organization it did not go so well.

Similar with Reich but surprisingly there are still a couple of things starting with Reich, like the Parliament building is still called Reichstag even if there is no Reich no more.

Americans use National mostly when things are uncontroversially national and international. For mostly national and controversially international things they prefer World, like World Series, WCW, WFL.

> the Parliament building is still called Reichstag even if there is no Reich no more

"Reich" isn‘t a Nazi thing. The building was already called that decades earlier. It goes back to the last German emperor, and Reich actually means empire. The Roman Empire is also called Römisches Reich.

The World Series is a contest between the National League (which is only American teams) and the American League (which has international teams).

Other international sports leagues with teams in the USA include the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey Association.

It's generic only if the context isn't implied. In e.g. NBA, NHL etc. "national" means "American".

That the distribution was a fully translated system together with a thick manual (of course also in German) was the whole point and idea. Your comment is too dismissive in my opinion.

The manual was pretty much a Linux for beginners book. It not only explained installation and basic system administration, but had substantial vim and Emacs chapters, as well as a chapter on retro gaming using emulators. (SuSE 5.3 in my case).

Well who ever came up with "Deutsche Linux-Distribution" most likely did not have a marketing department.

Besides, putting "German" in your product name at the time (199x) actually was a savvy marketing move, especially if you are the first in a particular niche. There were lots of buyers who wanted to buy fully translated software back then, and the sticker "Software and Manual in German" probably is the most successful sale booster of the 80ies and 90ies in Germany.

This of course does not even touch the subject of localization issues, just to name 2 from the top of my hat:

[1]For years (maybe a decade?) Apple maps had issues if you tried to enter an address the "German" way: <Streetname> <Number> instead of <Number> <Streetname>.

[2]To this day websites ask me for "states" in my shipping address. Yes, Germany has states. We mostly dont care about them. No one puts the state in a shipping address. Shops, please stop getting annoyed when I dont know if you expect me to enter a 2-or 3-length string as abbreviation for my state (which you dont need for anything, anyway). VAT is a federal tax, therefore its not different from state to state.

The Netherlands had that system as well. But entering the number first is faster: the number needs to be exact, but the street can be autocompleted easily.

Every country does.

American Express

British Telecom

Etc

It literally just meant a Linux distribution with German localization.

So it's not just a meme that Americans like to slap a flag on everything they import from China, it's the reality. How imaginative, the marketing departments who come up with these names must be making bank.

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