Drizzle: Big-Data-happy MySQL fork debuts Drizzle – a lightweight fork of Oracle's MySQL database for cloud computing – has been released by open sourcers. Drizzle tarball version 2011.03.13 has been released as general availability (GA) version. It comes nearly three years after the project was announced by Brian Aker, one of MySQL's key architects,. Drizzle aims to …
Drizzle? Seriously? MySQL was bad enough as a name, but Drizzle?
After something intended for serious professional use forks, the people making the fork really should go all-out to make the new version as attractive to business as possible. This is one of the many examples of dreadful open source names.
I saw a cartoon the other day, it went along the lines of:
Employee: There is a new system that we can use, it works on less high spec hardware, it's faster, more secure, there is loads of support and it's free.
Boss: Brilliant, what's it called?
Employee: Gutsy Gibbon
Boss: Are you smoking crack? Get back to work.
The only worse "things to do with clouds" type of name could possibly be Sleat. Is this a language problem - do they call drizzle something different in the US?
At least Cyclone, Thunder etc, while associated with storms have a big sounding, lots of energy type of name, whereas drizzle is the most annoying thing to come out of a cloud.
First, you completely misunderstand the aim of the project. It is NOT aimed at home users or the advertisement types, it is aimed at big datacenters manned by people who couldn't give a shit about the name provided the performances are right.
Second, wich name do you think best describes a lightweight, decentralised system, Drizzle or Cyclone?
Sorry, but I totally understand what they're trying to do and the big users of big data are banks, financials in general, big oil/energy etc. etc. These are extremely conservative environments and a general air of professionalism is required to get through the door. The first point of contact with any new piece of software is its name, so it has to be right.
As an example: The bank that I work for (and many other large companies) will not, ever, use The GIMP. They won't ever look at it, and it certainly won't be installed on a standard build, this is solely because of its name.
The target of this is NOT banks, big oil,... its the REAL big guys, Google, Amazon, Yahoo, Facebook etc.
You'll notice the COMPLETE -and deliberate- lack of user-friendlyness, basically the configuration has to be done with a hammer and a tiny chisel to carve the 0s ans 1s manually on the disks. It is a lego brick to be incorporated in big datacenters in lieu of the comparatively bloated MySQL, not a complete, luser-ready system.
Also I'm sick of people complaining about open source names just because it's open source. Apple OS is a stupid name, and Windows? Seriously? Skype? come on. .NET? How could you get more horrid than .NET? Oh right, that would be iPad. Or Java. Seriously, Java? Puh-leeze. etc...
Names are just tags, and that's especially true for backend software. For all you know your "conservative" bank software might include a module named WhoeverUsesThatCrapIsaMoron, but only the seller's devs would know. Same as for Drizzle. You're not likely to notice if Facebook starts using that, are you?
Also, I did not know that banks had a need for the Gnu Image Manipulation Program, although if they had, they would be complete morons not to use it based on the name alone, and I, personnally, think you're pulling that crap out of your arse; no high-level manager will dismiss a saving of million dollars based on a seemingly silly soft name. There would have to be REAL reason. Only deadwood middle management types and the coloured-crayons department give a rat's ass about software names. The rest of us use the right tool for the job.
Which reminds me that I need to rename my latest project Hammer. Because Hammer is always the right tool for the job, Or something. The next one will be Ductape (possibly with a logo featuring a large simian creature just to add some confusion). Cubicle drones might not get it and find the names silly, but if it's aimed at techies it will make a killing.
Right, because the iron-level techies at Facebook or Google -nice names, btw, don't you think?- are likely to be put off by a slightly funny name. The reaction you're describing is true for home users and mid-level managers in a bank, and none of these types is the intended audience. For these guys easily impressed by shiny names there are things called Seven Professional Ultimate Platinum Edition and the like (which I personally find way more ridiculous than Drizzle, or even Gutsy Gibbon)
You don't mention Xeround anywhere else in your story, apart from the bootnote, to give a plug for their hosted mysql service - so what's that about?
Seems every time you talk about Drizzle, you bring up Xeround:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=xeround+gavin+clark
Inquiring minds, etc
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