Many of the package names are quite funny

Apr 6, 2015 11:53 GMT  ·  By

WhyTheName is a very useful Debian wiki that explains the name of most packages found in the operating system and teaches readers some cool new facts.

All the operating systems should have a wiki explaining the name of some of the packages so that there are no more mysteries. The Debian wiki created for this purpose is a very interesting one because it describes both the name of the package and its function in the operating system, which is a very cool thing to have.

People who have been dealing with Linux systems for a long time don't usually give a lot of thought to the names of the packages, but some of the explanations will surprise even old timers. If you think that you can't be surprised after 20 years of Linux use, you should check the Debian wiki and learn a few new things.

All distros should have wikis like this one

If more developers went through the trouble of explaining why they chose a name for a specific package or what it does exactly, the entire building process might become a little bit more transparent.

"An IT-etymology/linguistics page for people wondering 'how come the package yasysmand-cling has such a strange name?' Giving cryptic names to software is a well-established UNIX tradition, and the explanations are often missing from the documentation, either because the developers imagine it's obvious (usually wrongly) or because they think nobody cares (and here they're usually right, or it would turn up as FAQ material)," the wiki reads.

People have been invited to contribute to the wiki, and there are a few simple rules they need to follow. Despite some of the funny explanations, it's easy to assume that most of them are true. Please read them and share your favorite one with us.