It hit me this week how great of a name Ubuntu is. Despite being a Zulu word from South Africa, it rolls off the tongue so nicely regardless of your language. At least, that is my hunch, anyway. Here is why I say it. Earlier this week, I was hanging out with a friend who almost never uses a computer. I fired up my Kubuntu laptop to show him something online. He saw the word "Kubuntu" pop up and was simply moved to verbalize it. "Kooo-BOOOOOON-toooo" he crooned, and then he smiled and said "Awesome, what's that!?"

A few days later another non-geek friend was in my office, and out of all of my books, geeky and not, he singled out Ubuntu Unleashed and asked me "Neat name, what is that book about?" That was my lead in to give him a quick tour of Ubuntu Linux and show him how cool, useful and easy-to-use it is.

I have long been sensitive to product names because I used to work for SUSE well before the Novell days. When I started in '97, the Germans were still focused on the German market and using the German acronym S.u.S.E., meaning "Software und System Entwicklung", or "sofware and system development". (No wonder Shakespeare wasn't German, eh?) Our team was confounded on what to do with the name for North America and Asia. Leave it 'as is'? Keep the German pronunciation? Somehow Anglicize the pronunciation? On our trade-show signage we offered a pronunciation clue, which I think went like this: "SUE-zuh". So much for creative naming.

During that time, I was so envious of Red Hat for its creative name. They had this great, memorable symbol, a prominent color, and they could wear red hats around to build their brand. Yellow Dog Linux is another great name for similar reasons, sans hat wearing.

Now, 11 years later and after this week's experiences, I have to say that Ubuntu has stolen my heart for best name. We're fortunate that Mark Shuttleworth and team chose such a beautiful name for a Linux distribution because it acts as a sort of friendly envoy that opens doors and hearts for people to learn about our awesome operating system.

"Oooo-BOOOOOON-toooo!!!" :D