Linux on Jeopardy

yesthatguy writes "Tonight's episode of Jepoardy! featured a question in the "Tech Business and Industry" category that asked which operating system was made by Linus Torvalds and can be obtained for free. The answer(question), of course: 'What is Linux?' An interinsting point I noticed...the kid (Teen Tournament) that gave the answer, pronounced the name wrong. Jeopardy usually will not give credit to a mispronunciation... " Please! No pronunciation holy wars! But that is pretty cool. Ya know you've hit the big time when you get a question on Jeopardy.

Comments

Pronunciation

[rde]

Jeez. Do you think Windows users argue like this?
"It's a piece of shit"
"No, it's a piece of shite"
"You're both wrong, it's a pile of shit"
"Actually..."

Be grateful you can still count contending pronunciations without taking your socks off.

Linus knows.

[Booker]

Pardon my arrogance, but I'd like to suggest that Linus probably knows how to pronounce it.

Re:I don't get all the holy wars

[Millennium]

Nope, Linux Torvalds isn't pronounced like Linux on Peanuts. It's the Peanuts pronunciation which gave rise to the myth that it is pronounced "LINE-ux."

Consider, by the way, that "Linux" is actually a dual pun. It plays both on Linus' name and Minix, the OS which inspired Linux. Minix is pronounced with a short i (like the first i in"mini"). Linus, as least in the context of Torvalds' first name, is also pronounced in this way. Therefore, why would Linux not also be pronounced with the same short i as both of its linguistic predecessors? Particularly since Linus himself pronounces it the same way he pronounces his name.

As far as I'm concerned, the person who gave the OS its name gets to pick how it's correctly pronounced. But let's not get into a holy war over this.

Jeopardy's all well and good, but...

[Mister Attack]

Well, you know you've _really_ hit the big time when you get on Wheel of Fortune. And after that, who knows? Maybe in the Showcase on The Price Is Right. Now _that_ would be prestige!

Forget Linux

[copito]

If you really want a geeky pronunciation argument, try any of the following:

csh
tcsh
lilo
cache
~
#
!

For the record I'm:

cee-ess-aich
teesh
lie-low
cash
tild-ah, although I'm gravitating towards twiddle
hash
bang



--

Re:Forget Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

Nahhh, its:
csh - Sea Shell
tcsh - Tea See Shell
lilo - Ok, you win
cache - Here too...
~ - Til-dee
# - Octothorpe or Pound (depending on my mood)
! - Damn, 3/6... That's pretty good!

Yeah, you got it, ! and # on him till he hertz! Then he'll talk(1)!

C picks C SHs by the C Shore.

We'd better Lilo till they're gone...

Watch out for me! I don't have an *!

Oh oh, I might != be able to continue at this rate...

When she told me to &, I didn't know she wanted her clothes full of dirt!

Why a corn husk, when you can have a ksh?

Sysadmin (About a home directory): I put him in /usr/local/bin/bash.

Luser (50% lobotomy... Up to now): User? A local? You put him in a bin then you bashed him? After all the slashings? I'm phoning the police, your larting has gone too far!

Stupid person at a computer store: A SCSI drive? Do you mean he sells drugs, hires hitmen, and does all the other dirty work, all from his car?

Why have a 3 1/2" floppy when you can enjoy a 5 1/4"?

A person new to computer electronics: Why does this book keep saying I need a PROM... I'm out of high-school, dammit!

The exclamation of a Lamer/Loser in high-school: EPROM!

At the end of a letter to Captain Blackbeard M., from his mates: IBM.

A semi-popular rap-exclamation from the 80's: AAAAAAAMC.

Well, I'm fresh out for today, I must have hit my Zenith(tm)...

Re:Pronunciation

[MrHat]

Actually, Windows users have more advanced and far more complex pronunciation issues than any of the primitive *nix operating systems do.

Take, for example, a case I encountered yesterday. While I exclaimed that Windows was really an "ass-smoking handicapped piece of crap" after it refused to boot, my boss, only a room away, interpreted windows as more of a "bloated, sheep-probing pile of crap" as the file server BSOD'd.

These subtle linguistic variations prove the flexibility of Windows and demonstrate a truly superior design, especially when compared to the antiquated Unix architecture.

Re:They mispronounced Linus as well

[msaari]

If I wanted to provocate heated arguing, I would say that is just so typical American attitude.

But I am not saying that, I am just saying that at least here in Finland (where Linus is from, too) we usually pronounce names like they should be pronounced in their own language. I pronounce American names American way (as well as I can, of course) and Swedish names Swedish way and so on.

Linus is, in this case, Finnish name, so Finnish pronounciation would be preferred if you are being considerate.