alt Hacker NewsYep. Just did a reimage update to Fedora 43, got errors about 'ptyxis' in some shell scripts. Wat (wipes desk and keyboard)?
Oh, it's the graphical terminal program (alternative to 'gnome-terminal'). Well, um, ok.
However, I will concede, after more digging as to why (as it rankled), that there was a "have to choose a unique name" issue there (even leaving aside trademark issues). I'm resigned (so I suppose signed up) to deal with residual issues that crop up going forward.
I love to mock '*ly.com' names for almost certainly doomed enterprises, but I get that at least it wasn't already taken.
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pty is a Pseudo TeletYpe (aka, terminal emulator). It's 50-year-old word.
ptyxis is a word based on the 'pty' base, because it's not the only pty program.
It's a nearly-unique name, which is very good for the task of "discovering what it is".
It’s a solid terminal, but could they have chosen a worse name?