I’ve been becoming an Apple guy for a while.

I have a iPhone, I bought my parents a Mac mini for Christmas, and if anyone asks what tablet they should buy I always say, iPad (and maybe one or two Kindle Fire recommendations). I think one of the major benefits of Apple is the unified look and feel. Windows and Android seem very disjointed in their user experience. Many Linux distributions have tried to copy the OS X motif, but I think elementary OS is the best one. I found elementary OS last year and it immediately became my favorite Linux distribution.

elementary OS is built off of Ubuntu, performs very well, and I’m a big fan of its OS X inspired look and feel. I find it very welcome in light of the other noisy and cluttered looks I find in other distributions. The built in apps are a bit sparse, but there has only been two releases so far and what has been released are showing a lot of promise. The third release is in development, and almost as if taking a cue from Blizzard Entertainment, the release date is when it’s ready.

Being a fan of elementary OS I was quite annoyed to find that on June 22nd, the upcoming release of elementary OS, code named Isis, was changed to Freya. Here was the reason given by the developers:

While Isis worked well, there is currently an active militant group in Iraq and Syria commonly known as “ISIS” (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria). elementary obviously has no ties to that group—and we don’t think people will get us confused—but we want to both recognize the ongoing turmoil and choose a less controversial name.

I am disappointed, but not surprised.

Here is what annoys me:

…elementary obviously has no ties to that group—and we don’t think people will get us confused—but we want to both recognize the ongoing turmoil and choose a less controversial name.

This is just more wannabe social justice, politically correct, feelgood bullshit that I come to expect from people.

“…obviously has no ties…,” No shit, Sherlock. Any outside visitor to your site employing the logical reasoning that an eight year old is capable of would conclude that the codename Isis for an Operating System and the acronym ISIS for Islamic terrorists are not the same.

“…recognize the ongoing turmoil…,” There is some perpetual need that floats across leftists making them believe in the nobility of drawing attention to their concerns for others. In reality, that perpetual need is narcissism cloaked in altruism.

“…less controversial…,” There is no controversy. There is no controversy because there are no ties to the ISIS group. I doubt very much ISIS was complaining about it, and if they were, shouldn’t they been told to shove it?

What happens when some terrorist group crops up with the name Elementary. Does the whole project change its name? What if there is a child molester named Freya? Will the code name be changed a second time? Should the elementary OS project try to accommodate the world to lessen controversy?

In the end, it really doesn’t matter. ISIS will continue to fight the Iraqi government and Isis Freya will eventually be released. I will install Freya, I will tinker with it, I will enjoy it, and I will wonder how much time and effort will be wasted because someone wanted to stare at themselves in a mirror and avoid some imaginary controversy just to think they are better people for it.