• 𝖕𝖘𝖊𝖚𝖉@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    27
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Originally called Phoenix, since it was Netscape Navigator, reborn.

    But Phoenix Technologies disliked that, so they renamed to a descriptive name for the same immortal bird – Firebird.

    The Firebird database people would have none of that, so after a few-months gap between 0.x releases, they found the closest thing they possibly could which was not trademarked. It had nothing to do with the original name idea, fire being a weak link.

    And we’ve been stuck with that stupid name for two decades.

    • eric5949@lemmy.cloudaf.site
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      25
      ·
      1 year ago

      It’s kinda crazy the whole reason we have Firefox is a company was crushed by Microsoft and said “fuck it, shit’s open source now.”

    • earthquake@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 year ago

      There was a satirical addon back in this day that would change the Firefox name every time you opened it to like WaterHippo or SunJackal to make fun of this.