The Battle for Wesnoth hits 1.0 [LWN.net]

The Battle for Wesnoth hits 1.0

Posted Oct 6, 2005 16:45 UTC (Thu) by cdmiller (guest, #2813)
Parent article: The Battle for Wesnoth hits 1.0

Heh,

In a different genera Nexuiz is going strong:

http://www.nexuiz.com

to post comments

"Nex - you - isn't"

Posted Oct 7, 2005 1:53 UTC (Fri) by amazingblair (guest, #2789) [Link] (5 responses)

Apropos of nothing:

"Nexuiz" is another example of all the clunky names that we nerds come up with. I can think of no redeeming way to pronounce it. It seems that computer expertise is linked to having a tin ear for language. I still remember the feeling of revulsion that washed over me when I discovered that "Gnu" was NOT pronounced /noo/, like the graceful animal, but /guh-noo/, like... well, like nothing at all.

Thank goodness Linus Torvalds allowed himself to be talked into "Linux" instead of his awful first choice, "Freax" (sp?). Brrr!

-Amazing Blair

"Nex - you - isn't"

Posted Oct 7, 2005 9:13 UTC (Fri) by jschrod (subscriber, #1646) [Link] (4 responses)

Interesting. I would have thought that Freax is pronounced in most languages the same since it is derived from Freak (which has been incorporated into many languages).

Whereas Linux is pronounced differently in its originating language Finnish and English. (AFAIK, Finnish is like German: The `i' is pronounced as `e', the `u' as in `wonderful'.) French is different again.

Btw, the graceful animal Gnu is not pronounced /noo/, at least not in my language (German). There the `G' is spoken. And I always pronounce GNU, the project, just like Gnu, the animal, in my own language. Which seems to be quite right, if I deciver your pronounciation glyphs correctly...

Bit anglo-centric in your pronouncation woes, aren't you?

Cheers, Joachim

How do you pronounce Linux

Posted Oct 8, 2005 12:57 UTC (Sat) by emj (guest, #14307) [Link] (3 responses)

I would like to see you promounce freak in Spanish, Swedish or even Japanese... ;-)

BTW are the *.au files with linux pronouncing Linux in Swedish and English still available? They are pretty funny showing how pronouciation works when you are talking your native tounge (swedish) and not (english).

How do you pronounce Linux

Posted Oct 9, 2005 12:16 UTC (Sun) by jschrod (subscriber, #1646) [Link] (1 responses)

Oh, I don't know about Japanese, but my Spanish and Swedish acquaintances pronounce Freak as I do in German: the English way. For us, freak is a foreign word that has been incorporated into our languages and is part of our everyday speech.

Proper names like Linus or Linux are a different thing, though. There are both American folks with that name (Linus Pauling comes immediately to mind), as well as it is a common name in the scandinavian countries. (With very different pronounciation, of course. :-) Anyhow, I have to say that I don't know where the *.au files of Linus are and that I have never listened to them. Having been in in the North often enough, I know how they pronounce it there. :-)

Cheers, Joachim

How do you pronounce Linux

Posted Oct 28, 2005 20:09 UTC (Fri) by amazingblair (guest, #2789) [Link]

Joachim,

You're quite right about my anglo-centricism regarding this pronunciation issue, I must admit. (And your deciphering of my quick-and-dirty glyphs is perfect.) It's interesting that "Gnu" has two syllables in German, and fitting. In English, however, it's an ugly sound and stands out as unnatural. Funny how the same sounds in a different language setting can have a different effect, but that's the case. /guh-noo/ is cringe-inducing in English, to those with a sensitive ear. :-)

Besides, Richard Stallman is an English-speaking American. He invented Gnu the project. He's exactly the sort of geek who would come up with the wrong (for English) pronunciation of the word. Probably played Dungeons & Dragons and pronounced "scepter" and "specter" BOTH as /skep-tur/! Ha!

On a side note: it never occurred to me that "Freax" might be pronounced the same as "freaks". Looking at the two-syllable model of Unix, Minix, Linux, etc, I took Freax to be something like "Free-axe", another linguistic whopper. The name Linux is so clever, combining Linus with Unix. So "Free-axe" would combine Free with the -x from Unix. But "Freaks"? That doesn't imply anything but oddity on display! Oh well... as I say, glad he opted for Linux.

-Herr Blair

How do you pronounce Linux

Posted Oct 9, 2005 13:08 UTC (Sun) by farnz (subscriber, #17727) [Link]

The sounds are still available on kernel.org; try the English version or the Swedish version.

Why don't they say what it is?

Posted Oct 7, 2005 15:34 UTC (Fri) by walles (guest, #954) [Link] (3 responses)

Why is it so hard for many projects to present themselves on their main page? They should have the Info page as a front page, not the News page.

Why don't they say what it is?

Posted Oct 7, 2005 16:49 UTC (Fri) by hollis (subscriber, #6768) [Link] (1 responses)

Very true.

The same goes for release announcements too: "Version 0.7 of Foo is out! Changes include a new frobulator and a reimplemented bar." But what _is_ it?

Why don't they say what it is?

Posted Oct 14, 2005 10:03 UTC (Fri) by Jyhem (guest, #29388) [Link]

I concur. The piss-poor design of this website must have lost more potential players than any weakness in the gaming itself could.

Even if you put the the "info" page as homepage (which you should), the second must useful page is the "screenshots" page. Which is *also* missing from the menubar !
This is even more silly as it actually exists, only it's hidden behind the "media" link.

sigh :-(

Why don't they say what it is?

Posted Oct 17, 2005 19:53 UTC (Mon) by alext (guest, #7589) [Link]

Agreed.

I took one look (like I do to sites with that arrangement) I left bevause life is too short to try to pick which link tells me about the thing. Anyone mainly interested in the news will surely just bookmark straight to it or have an aggregator if they support it.

nesuixn't

Posted Oct 7, 2005 16:00 UTC (Fri) by erich (guest, #7127) [Link] (1 responses)

The biggest issue with nesuix is that their web front page doesn't even contain a clue what it is about. or that it's a game at all. Or what it's licence is. Just some tiny text about some new releases.

nesuixn't is now

Posted Jan 3, 2006 8:44 UTC (Tue) by pdundas (guest, #15203) [Link]

I agree - so I asked them nicely, and they fixed it :-)
http://www.nexuiz.com/