postmarketOS Rebrands as Nura

postmarketOS, the Linux distribution built for smartphones and other mobile devices, has announced a change of name. From now on it is called Nura. The new name was unveiled at the project's conference, and the selection process behind it took a year and a half.

The meaning behind the name

Nura is short for nuraghe, the name given to ancient granite structures on Sardinia dating back more than five thousand years — many of which still stand today. The developers see in this a symbol of durability and stability: from the very beginning, the project's goal has been to keep devices useful for as long as possible. The name was suggested by community member Davide Depau.

Why the rename

The team explains that "postmarketOS" had long hindered outreach. The name is long, hard to pronounce and remember across languages, and its spelling caused confusion — the mix of lower- and upper-case letters left everyone unsure of the correct form.

The old name was also descriptive. That helped explain the project at first, but eventually became a constraint — for instance, when PINE64 began selling PinePhones with the OS pre-installed. A descriptive name also cannot be trademarked, and the team considers such protection important for guarding against misuse. A trademark application for the new name has already been filed.

Selection and details

The community proposed more than three hundred candidates. A selection team ran through several rounds, weeded out names with problematic connotations in various languages, and put four finalists to a vote. Nura won by range voting.

The logo will stay — the team likes it and its connection to the mission — though it received minor tweaks: slightly wider spacing between the arrows for legibility at a distance, and a mathematically reproducible construction.

The new site lives at nura.eco rather than nura.org. The .org domain was taken, and its owner declined to sell at a reasonable price. The team settled on .eco, a zone reserved for organizations committed to positive change for the planet, with strict rules against greenwashing. The developers say it suits their goals even better.

Renaming all user-facing strings will take a while, so "postmarketOS" still appears in places. The team welcomes contributions to help update them.

Source: Hacker News