Style Guide: Ubuntu nomenclature proposal

[Mary Gardiner]

I'm generally +1 on this proposal.

On Tue, Apr 26, 2005, Jeff Schering wrote:
> 1. In titles and headings: 
> 
> a) Use "Ubuntu Operating System", or "Ubuntu". 

I think "Ubuntu" is to be vastly preferred over "Ubuntu Operating
System". It's an operating system combined with a desktop environment
(like most other desktop OSs these days) and a large number of
applications.

I would prefer the terms "Ubuntu system" or "Ubuntu envrionment"
(depending on what you're talking about) to "Ubuntu Operating System."
I'm sure there are times when "Ubuntu Operating System" is closest to
what you want to convey, but I don't think those times are so frequent
that they merit inclusion in the #1 item in the style guide.

I'm also not sure that "Operating System" should be capitalised when it
is used. The name Canonical has chosen does seem to definitely be
"Ubuntu".

Thanks to trademark practice (I have no idea what the trademark status
of "Ubuntu" is, but I don't think it really matters for our purposes
anyway), the normal way to treat product names is as a capitalised
adjective followed by a lower case noun, eg "Kleenex toilet tissues"
rather than "Kleenex Toilet Tissues", "Ubuntu operating system" rather
than "Ubuntu Operating System".
 
> b) You can use "Ubuntu Linux Distribution" or "Ubuntu Linux Distro,"
> but try to reserve those terms for audiences who do not need to have
> "distribution" or "distro" explained to them.

I'd tend to always recommend "distribution" over "distro", because the
latter seems like techie slang to me. And techies will cope just fine if
we use the word "distribution".

Again, I don't think "Distribution" or "Distro" should be capitalised.

> 2. In the document body text: 
> 
> a) Use "Ubuntu Operating System" the first time you refer to Ubuntu,
> then use "Ubuntu" thereafter.

See above for my position on this, I'd prefer "Ubuntu install", "Ubuntu
copy" (for physical copies of Ubuntu, eg on CD), "Ubuntu system" or
"Ubuntu environment" as appropriate.

> e) You can use "Ubuntu Linux Distribution" or "Ubuntu Linux Distro,"
> but try to reserve those terms for audiences who do not need to have
> "distribution" or "distro" explained to them.

Again, see above for capitalisation concerns.

> f) If you use any of these terms, (Debian, GNU/Linux, Linux,
> distribution, distro) you must explain them in the text following
> their first use, as well as in the glossary (if there is a glossary).
> The only exception is when the audience of the document is already
> knowledgeable about the terms Debian, GNU/Linux, Linux, distribution,
> and distro.

An exception for hyperlinked documents could perhaps be made here by
giving a link to a glossary as an alternative to in-line explanation?

-Mary