A question of preference...

[midigark]

Hello,

Just a question of general terminology.

When posting about Linux Mint, I always capitalize the "L" in linux and of course Mint.

However, when just dealing with Linux (or linux) in general, I've seen widespread use of both capitalized and lower case.

I'd once read a comment that it is considered "proper" to use all lower case, because it refrains from having this operating system appear as being commercialized, etc...

Among this community, is there an accepted standard, or is it just not a thing?

Thanks,
Mark

[Moem]

I've been here for a while and I've never heard of that. I don't think it's a thing.

[manyroads]

You can certainly research branding and trademark pages for guidance on what those requirements are, here are some examples:

https://github.com/linuxmint/brand-logo
https://www.linuxfoundation.org/legal/trademark-usage

[xenopeek]

It's stylized "linuxmint" in some of the brand logos but in text it's always "Linux Mint" on the Linux Mint websites. When posting here it can be fine to shorten it to "Mint" or "LM" when it's clear from context what you mean.

For Linux vs linux — it's "Linux" but I think it's fine to use linux as well, others will understand what you mean. "linux" is in the kernel package name so depending on context it can be more appropriate to use all lower case.

[vimes666]

With capitals is more elegant..

[RollyShed]

Possibly the age of the writer? They would write something like the following -
"i seen fred and we went to new york"

They don't use capitals because of laziness. Yes Linux.
The same with Windows meaning the software versus the glass thing you look out of written in lower case.

This thread
viewtopic.php?t=415888
and spamegg suggests using capitals as merlin doesn't use any anywhere nor are there any full stops.

[Joss]

Possibly the age of the writer?

Yes, you have a point.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

It's stylized "linuxmint" in some of the brand logos but in text it's always "Linux Mint" on the Linux Mint websites. When posting here it can be fine to shorten it to "Mint" or "LM" when it's clear from context what you mean.

For Linux vs linux — it's "Linux" but I think it's fine to use linux as well, others will understand what you mean. "linux" is in the kernel package name so depending on context it can be more appropriate to use all lower case.

Linux is a proper noun since it is the name of a specific kernel and is not a generic name. In English, proper nouns are supposed to be capitalized.

[midigark]

Sorry, after all these great responses, I cannot resist.

"Then, what about generic kernels? 5.15.0-101-generic"

As I am almost 67 and-a-half, I usually tend to be more formal and generally see the lack of caps in the younger generations.
Whether it is due to laziness, just one more key stroke, the influence of texting on cell phones* or lack of respect, I have no idea.

*The influence of texting on cell phones has almost created a new but non-standardized sub-language.

wen u consid ent txts snt as nrly obscur abrvs...
Future linguists and archaeologists will certainly consider it a cultivated slang language. lol

Like Nadsat in "A Clockwork Orange"

Anyway, I guess linux/Linux all comes down to context and personal preferences.

peace
Mark

[t42]

This is a random example in the package context from quite long discussion on LKML, please note that Linus Torvalds anyway took time to press Shift

Linus Torvalds:
spinlocks and preemption points need to be at least compiler barriers
kobject: fix kset_find_obj() race with concurrent last kobject_put()
Add file_ns_capable() helper function for open-time capability checking
Linux 3.9-rc7

[t42]

Possibly the age of the writer? They would write something like the following -
"i seen fred and we went to new york"

They don't use capitals because of laziness. ...

Anyway the phone usually automatically capitalizes the first word of a sentence and you need to take your efforts to change it to lowercase

[RollyShed]

Anyway the phone usually automatically capitalizes the first word of a sentence and you need to take your efforts to change it to lowercase

True except I also always put a full stop at the end of a sentence on the phone.
To get a capital i (as in "I was there"), I put in a full stop, get the I and then remove the stop.

As for midigark at 67, he is one of the younger ones here as all of us 80+ year olds know.