Open source projects with names similar to existing projects
October 17, 2013 5:38 AM Subscribe
I'm looking for examples of open source projects whose names are a spin on the name of an incumbent software, particularly a commercial/proprietary one.
Examples:
Examples:
- Linux (Unix)
- GPG (PGP)
- Notepad++ (Notepad)
- OpenOffice (Office)
- R (S)
vi/vim
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 6:05 AM on October 17, 2013
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 6:05 AM on October 17, 2013
I guess LaTeX/XeTeX/ConTeXt and friends might count. (Though LaTeX is certainly relying on TeX in the background.)
There's a LaTeX package called TikZ, which stands for 'TikZ ist kein Zeichenprogramm' (Tikz is not a drawing program), which is arguably a play on the only recursive acronym anyone knows, GNU.
posted by hoyland at 6:22 AM on October 17, 2013
There's a LaTeX package called TikZ, which stands for 'TikZ ist kein Zeichenprogramm' (Tikz is not a drawing program), which is arguably a play on the only recursive acronym anyone knows, GNU.
posted by hoyland at 6:22 AM on October 17, 2013
Ruby on Rails/Groovy on Grails (both are open source)
LimeWire/FrostWire
Evernote/Nevernote
posted by specialagentwebb at 6:24 AM on October 17, 2013
LimeWire/FrostWire
Evernote/Nevernote
posted by specialagentwebb at 6:24 AM on October 17, 2013
Don't forget PINE (Pine Is Not ELM)
Edit: D'oh, apparently that's an urban legend. But Alpine exists, so that's something.
posted by General Malaise at 6:26 AM on October 17, 2013
Edit: D'oh, apparently that's an urban legend. But Alpine exists, so that's something.
posted by General Malaise at 6:26 AM on October 17, 2013
Such approach to naming seems popular in the open-source world, but it still is a bit hard to think of many examples right off the bat. Here are the first I can think of:
Nevernote/Nixnote - a Linux client for Evernote (Nevernote already was mentioned).
Grive - Linux software for interacting with Google Drive, a.k.a. GDrive.
Guido van Robot - Python implementation of Karel the Robot (Java); reference to Python's creator Guido van Rossum.
posted by 9080 at 7:20 AM on October 17, 2013
Nevernote/Nixnote - a Linux client for Evernote (Nevernote already was mentioned).
Grive - Linux software for interacting with Google Drive, a.k.a. GDrive.
Guido van Robot - Python implementation of Karel the Robot (Java); reference to Python's creator Guido van Rossum.
posted by 9080 at 7:20 AM on October 17, 2013
Thought of some more:
LibreFM - web service similar to LasFM in some ways.
Jython is an implementation of Python running on Java VM.
LibreOffice is an alternative to OpenOffice.
IcedTea JVM is a play on Java being hot coffee.
FreeCAD as alternative to AutoCAD.
FreeCiv and FreeCol as alternatives to Sid Meier's Civilization/Colonization.
FreeComamnder/MidnightCommander - file managers similar to Norton Commander and Total Commander.
GIMPshop as an alternate set of tools for GIMP to mimick Photoshop.
Visual Boy Advance - emulator for Game Boy Advance; not sure if counts, given how the software running GBA games is built into the devices only and there are no official emulators.
Choqok/Turpial, or most open-source Twitter clients - references to various birds and Twitter.
Fedora - reference to Red Hat Enterprise Linux; both products belong to Red Hat, however.
Lubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu/Edubuntu are all built on standard Ubuntu co-base, but are maintained by their own communities.
Paint.NET - free alternative/extended version of Microsoft Paint.
Fuduntu and Funtoo are both Linux distros that refernce Ubuntu and Gentoo, repsectively.
Guake and Yakuake terminal emulators reference the commercial game Quake, which had a terminal that could be brought down with the tilde key.
Despotify is a library for interacting with Spotify, a proprietary service.
posted by 9080 at 7:38 AM on October 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
LibreFM - web service similar to LasFM in some ways.
Jython is an implementation of Python running on Java VM.
LibreOffice is an alternative to OpenOffice.
IcedTea JVM is a play on Java being hot coffee.
FreeCAD as alternative to AutoCAD.
FreeCiv and FreeCol as alternatives to Sid Meier's Civilization/Colonization.
FreeComamnder/MidnightCommander - file managers similar to Norton Commander and Total Commander.
GIMPshop as an alternate set of tools for GIMP to mimick Photoshop.
Visual Boy Advance - emulator for Game Boy Advance; not sure if counts, given how the software running GBA games is built into the devices only and there are no official emulators.
Choqok/Turpial, or most open-source Twitter clients - references to various birds and Twitter.
Fedora - reference to Red Hat Enterprise Linux; both products belong to Red Hat, however.
Lubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu/Edubuntu are all built on standard Ubuntu co-base, but are maintained by their own communities.
Paint.NET - free alternative/extended version of Microsoft Paint.
Fuduntu and Funtoo are both Linux distros that refernce Ubuntu and Gentoo, repsectively.
Guake and Yakuake terminal emulators reference the commercial game Quake, which had a terminal that could be brought down with the tilde key.
Despotify is a library for interacting with Spotify, a proprietary service.
posted by 9080 at 7:38 AM on October 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
Chromium
pyTunes
OSx86
MySQL (developed after dissatisfaction with mSQL)
Any "C" after C (e.g. C+, C++, C# ad infinitum), also D
the list is probably almost endless if you want to get down into obscure unfinished projects lurking on sourceforge.
On preview: nice, 9080.
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:41 AM on October 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
pyTunes
OSx86
MySQL (developed after dissatisfaction with mSQL)
Any "C" after C (e.g. C+, C++, C# ad infinitum), also D
the list is probably almost endless if you want to get down into obscure unfinished projects lurking on sourceforge.
On preview: nice, 9080.
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:41 AM on October 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
Oh, FreeBSD.
posted by General Malaise at 7:50 AM on October 17, 2013
posted by General Malaise at 7:50 AM on October 17, 2013
Fedora (from Red Hat) and more distantly CentOS (From RHEL -- C ent = "community enterprise")
FreeDOS
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:06 AM on October 17, 2013
FreeDOS
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:06 AM on October 17, 2013
To clarify, both are the names of butlers in pop culture: Hudson from "Upstairs, Downstairs", Jenkins from "Scooby-Doo."
posted by Lazlo Hollyfeld at 10:12 AM on October 17, 2013
posted by Lazlo Hollyfeld at 10:12 AM on October 17, 2013
The voicemail login prompt for Asterisk is "Comedian Mail" which is probably a take on Nortel's "Meridian Mail".
posted by tomierna at 10:22 AM on October 17, 2013
posted by tomierna at 10:22 AM on October 17, 2013
PSPP is a GNU alternative to SPSS statistical software. (SPSS stood for Statistical Package for the Social Sciences; PSPP apparently doesn't stand for anything.)
posted by mean square error at 1:39 PM on October 17, 2013
posted by mean square error at 1:39 PM on October 17, 2013
GNUstep was a reimplementation of NeXTstep's OpenStep APIs, similar to Wine which reimplements Windows APIs. ("Wine Is Not an Emulator.")
Gordon is an open source runtime for Flash (and thus a pun on Flash Gordon).
The successor to the Gordon project is Shumway which is named after Gordon Shumway.
Shumway is being developed at Mozilla which in turn was originally a code name meaning "Mosaic Killer."
posted by mbrubeck at 2:10 PM on October 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
Gordon is an open source runtime for Flash (and thus a pun on Flash Gordon).
The successor to the Gordon project is Shumway which is named after Gordon Shumway.
Shumway is being developed at Mozilla which in turn was originally a code name meaning "Mosaic Killer."
posted by mbrubeck at 2:10 PM on October 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
More:
WebKit's SquirrelFish JavaScript engine seems to be a play on Mozilla's SpiderMonkey engine (and its various monkey-themed sub-projects like TraceMonkey, JägerMonkey, etc.).
Lots of GNU software has names derived from the (often non-free) programs they were based on, including groff (troff), bash (the "Bourne-again shell" after the original Bourne shell), gawk (awk), less (more), gnash (Flash), nano (pico), and ncurses (curses).
posted by mbrubeck at 2:24 PM on October 17, 2013
WebKit's SquirrelFish JavaScript engine seems to be a play on Mozilla's SpiderMonkey engine (and its various monkey-themed sub-projects like TraceMonkey, JägerMonkey, etc.).
Lots of GNU software has names derived from the (often non-free) programs they were based on, including groff (troff), bash (the "Bourne-again shell" after the original Bourne shell), gawk (awk), less (more), gnash (Flash), nano (pico), and ncurses (curses).
posted by mbrubeck at 2:24 PM on October 17, 2013
« Older Why is my stomach angry all the time? | Will a long run of VGA cable and/or using a... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by phunniemee at 6:03 AM on October 17, 2013 [1 favorite]