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Comment by tcldr | Hacker News Reader

Rocky makes me think ‘unstable’ and ‘uncertain’ which seems at odds with the stated vision of the distribution. Might make for a tough sell.

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Probably not, apparently it was named after Rocky McGaugh, who after helping to found CentOS has died. It's a pretty cool way to honor him.

As someone who's named Rocky, reading this thread is amusing. Every comment feels personal.

I first thought of Rocky Balboa, the plucky underdog. I'd not heard of Mr McGaugh before, but it seems a fitting tribute.

What do you think about CentOS? Cheap OS?

In my head, that idea kind of balances with looking like "Central" OS. Something at the center of anything is more likely to be solid.

It's named in tribute after a guy called Rocky McGaugh. I don't think they want to change it.

Well, it's a really accurate name, so at least they're honest.

I got the same impression. Do you think it would be too late to change the name to "Rock Linux" or "Rock Solid Linux"?

Since branding is so important this really seems like something that should go through focus groups or crowd sources somehow? Maybe a poll on hacker news? Unfortunately, I really think changing the name would be critical to the success of the project. Imagine you are a technical lead and you have to convince your boss to switch from RHEL to Rocky Linux...

Edit: I know the name is in tribute to Rocky McGaugh, but I still think "Rock Solid Linux" "named in tribute to CentOs co-founder Rocky McGaugh" would make the project more successful

Given we are talking of branding, did you both completely miss the logo? To me it's clear the name is in reference to mountains, as in the Rocky Mountains.

No, I didn’t – and neither will many others!

That’s the point.

It’s a great tribute to one of the late Cent OS founders, but it comes with unfortunate marketing hurdles.

One disadvantage of "Rock Solid Linux" is that it shortens poorly. I think "Rock Solid" or "RSL" would be ambiguous. On the other hand I think "Rocky" sounds nice and unique (at least in this space).

Also I feel naming it "Rock Solid Linux" would be a bit gaudy or arrogant.

there was a now-defunct 'rock linux' already:

https://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=rock

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