this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2024
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Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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[–] [email protected] 207 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 children)

this is ok. minetest was an awful name.

for those of you without the patience to read a blogpost, the new name's actually a bit of wordplay.

“Luanti” is a wordplay on the Finnish word luonti (“creation”) and the programming language Minetest Luanti employs for games and mods, Lua. The goal was to avoid yet another plain English word (good luck finding something unique…) and highlight the core principles of the project. The fusion of celeron55’s Finnish nationality and the platform’s focus on content creation resulted in the birth of “Luanti”.

[–] [email protected] 89 points 1 month ago (2 children)

IMO, the worst thing about "Minetest" is that it sounded like it was just a test creation, a prototype or experiment. It's certainly well beyond that now. The announcement introduction mentions people associate it with being a Minecraft clone or alpha release, but even further, to me the name initially gave me the impression it was [still] someone's small hobby project. 'Luanti' is much better.

[–] [email protected] 52 points 1 month ago

On this note, another thing I appreciate is what they said about "Free" and "Libre": those names are great for saying "This is a free/libre/open clone of [x]", and that's what I'll think when I see it. Software like LibreOffice aims to support Microsoft Office documents, OpenRTC2 and OpenTTD are for people who want to see those games pretty-faithfully cloned, even if extended. Luanti is not OpenMinecraft.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

Agree 100%. I always though the name suggested it wasn’t quite a complete game. In fact at first I didn’t think it was a game at all.

[–] [email protected] 64 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Tbh Luanti is a pretty clever wordplay

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Plus it sounds Italian

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

I don't think it was that bad. I think the new name is better though

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Thanks for the TLDR, nice to know the reasons behind the name. And good reasons they are too.