On Mon, 23 Jun 1997, Dave Cinege wrote: > On Mon, 23 Jun 1997 10:52:51 -0400 (EDT), Will Lowe wrote: > > > So it's three syllables, "Deb'-i-an", with the accent on the "deb". > > This is also how I pronounce it. But the question really is, how does the > guy who made it pronouce it? I guess it hinges on how he says his name. > > I'-en > or > E'-en > > ????? > > Mr. Jackson?
As others have pointed out, you're thinking of Ian Murdock, not Ian Jackson, though they both have played crucian roles in the creation of our distribution. Last November/December, I had the pleasure of conversing with Ian Murdock over lunch here at Purdue. He indulged my silly curiosity (and likely my mild but poorly-veiled air of hero-worship) for about an hour and a half while I picked his brain about things Debian, Linux, and GNU-ish. At any rate, I believe I can say with some certainty that he pronounces his name "E'-en", with a long E sound and the generic unstressed schwa-vowel type sound. Will's description of the pronunciation of Debian is pretty close to Ian's, except I'm not sure I'd set off the "i". It's about as bi-syllabic as you can get without introducing some kind of British "y" kind of thing, e.g., "Deb-yun". If I'd had the foresight, a portable tape recorder, and the ability to convice him that, "sure, it's just a joke", I would have recorded him saying it, just Linus did with "Linux". I didn't get to meet the first half of the name of our distribution, but it wasn't for trying -- I invited him and his wife over for a big-screen TV Star Wars marathon that my roomates and I were throwing, but they didn't make it. Maybe he was busy with finals and graduation and all that stuff, or maybe I just came off too psychotic. You know, people often think I'm crazy but in truth-- KA-CHUNK KA-CHUNK KA-CHUNK NO CARRIER -- G. Branden Robinson Purdue University [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.ecn.purdue.edu/~branden/ -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
