I first started using Linux in 1995 (I think it was kernel 1.2 or something), and this was being argued over (or at least discussed) even back then. The conclusion was that Leenus doesn’t care how you pronounce Leenux.

That was very enlightening, the Spanish pronunciation is actually more close to that than the English one, so I feel very validated as an Spanish speaker. Thank you. Also didn't knew that he wasn't from an English speaking country.

So his name is really Lin-us and not Line-us?

I'm Italian and I pronounce both "i"s in the same way. Why is English so strange?

akshully

It's "substitute user do", and defaults to root

IIRC

It's really confusing because "pseudo" pronounce the same way, means not real. So it's like you only kind of have admin access but really there's a lot of systems you can't change. Except that's not the case, and you have full access.

Ah, yeah, that fucked me up too few months ago, there are several videos on the subject. I think it's a problem with words that are created as written first, and then got pronounced, in second place, like most tech lingo. As a non-native speaker those are always the hardest to speak correctly, and even english has no real consensus.

I have no source to back this up so maybe I came up with this in my own reality, but I thought it was related to, pseudo = pretended.

There is nothing to debate, Linux is just Linus with an x at the end and should be pronounced as such.

Though sometimes I wish Linus had claimed it was pronounced laynaxe just to fuck with people. Too bad we already know: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=c39QPDTDdXU&pp=ygUpbXkgbmFtZSBpcyBsaW51cyB0b3J2YWxkcyBhbmQgaSBwcm9ub3VuY2U%3D

I started back with kernel 0.12 and called it Line-ucks. I still do and people look at me funny, but it's an old habit and I'm an old dog.

When Linux released his audio file it was already etched into my brain the other way. I do remember being joking that I'm glad his name wasn't Pinus (like the genus for pine trees) after hearing him say it.

No, it's pronounced Linux

I thought Linux was named after Linus Torvalds, its creator.

They do have different roots.

One is % sudo su –

And the other is Canadian directly. Ask his parents their nationality to find better roots.

“English is not a language, it's three languages wearing a trench coat pretending to be one.”

For more fun, right about the time the printing press came into widespread use and English spelling became standardized, the language was in the middle of the Great Vowel Shift.

No, I pronounce them Lee-nukes and Lee-noose.

Actually, he didn't even name it that way, though he did later dictate how it should be pronounced before demonstrating that pronunciation with a completely different pronunciation.

Ari Lemmke, Torvalds' coworker at the Helsinki University of Technology (HUT) who was one of the volunteer administrators for the FTP server at the time, did not think that "Freax" was a good name, so he named the project "Linux" on the server without consulting Torvalds.[58] Later, however, Torvalds consented to "Linux".

According to a newsgroup post by Torvalds,[11] the word "Linux" should be pronounced (/ˈlɪnʊks/ ⓘ LIN-uuks) with a short 'i' as in 'print' and 'u' as in 'put'. To further demonstrate how the word "Linux" should be pronounced, he included an audio guide with the kernel source code.[59] However, in this recording, he pronounces Linux as /ˈlinʊks/ (LEEN-uuks) with a short but close front unrounded vowel, instead of a near-close near-front unrounded vowel as in his newsgroup post.

Interesting! Do you happen to know where the -UX suffix convention came from?