23 points
*
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 β 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 weβve been stuck with that stupid name for two decades.
25 points
Itβs kinda crazy the whole reason we have Firefox is a company was crushed by Microsoft and said βfuck it, shitβs open source now.β
7 points
*
6 points
