[spijdar]

To add on to this -- the about page acknowledges how "many are confused" about the name but effectively brushes it off because "kerberos is a good name", then "it's not actually kerberos, but kerberos.io", followed by "it's a mouthful so we'll just say kerberos" (and the HN submission just says kerberos)

I feel like the name really might be an impediment to the project. Not that people can't ever re-use names, but this really feels like a pointless impediment to discoverability.

[Spooky23]

It’s a uniquely bad name as Kerberos is used by almost every working adult, but hardly anyone understands it.

Usurping a vaguely familiar and confusing thing that is prevalent seems to be a bad choice.

[_huayra_]

They could just call it kerbaros instead to clear up the confusion. /s

This reminds me of the way the word for "today" in French is aujourd'hui. "hui" meant "today" in old French, but it sounds like oui ("yes"). If you split it apart, aujourd'hui means something like "of the day of today".

"of the open source video surveillance software of Kerberos"

[austincheney]

I wonder if MIT trademarked Kerberos.

https://web.mit.edu/kerberos/

[spinax]

US: quick search says Yes, at one time however it's was abandoned in 1994: https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:gm...

Current US trademark holder is a financial group: https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:gm...

Edit: it appears the USPTO has sent a notice refusing activation on the above due to requirements not met if I read this correctly: https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=88758894&caseType=SERIAL_...

[indymike]

Changing the name would be excellent marketing.

[wigster]

just rename as Fluffy

[woleium]

Or Argus

[throw0101a]

For anyone wondering:

> Argus Panoptes (All-seeing; Ancient Greek: Ἄργος Πανόπτης) or Argos (Ancient Greek: Ἄργος) is a many-eyed giant in Greek mythology. The figure is known for having generated the saying "the eyes of Argus", as in to be "followed by the eyes of Argus", or "trailed by" them, or "watched by" them, etc.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argus_Panoptes

> Argus Panoptes or Argos was a hundred-eyed giant in Greek mythology. He was a giant, the son of Arestor, whose name "Panoptes" meant "the all-seeing one". He was a servant of Hera; one of the tasks that were given to him was to slay the fearsome monster Echidna, wife of Typhon, which he successfully completed.

* https://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Creatures/Argus_Panopte...

[mirekrusin]

BigBro?

[Wistar]

The documentation introduction is where the name confusion is mentioned.

https://doc.kerberos.io/

[rjzzleep]

It actually is a really good name. But yeah, I had the same confusion.

[vhodges]

A better name for a multi-headed security system would be Cerberus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerberus

[pjc50]

Same dog, different language.

[wyager]

It’s pronounced about the same in either case. “Cerberus” in Latin is pronounced “Kerberus”, just like “cent” is actually pronounced “Kent”.

[vhodges]

Thanks, that I did not know.

[pjc50]

All the Greek patheon have dual Latin/Greek names. Mercury/Hermes etc.

[rjzzleep]

That might be something they would be willing to change their name to. It's also a commonly used name although probably nowhere near as bad to google as Kerberus.

[srswtf123]

I think Siemans has that under the Cerberus Pyrotronics brand.

[chedabob]

Already taken by this Android app though https://www.cerberusapp.com/

[woleium]

that's abandoned now I think

[dvfjsdhgfv]

It's a name that fits the project description well, but it's a very bad name for an open source security-related project. They could have as well named it OpenCV.

[Nzen]

Or they could make it a multi-part name, like Bronze Kerberos. That way, they can keep the connotation they want, but avoid the problems of squatting on a used name.

[Nzen]

Or they could make it a multi-part name, like Bronze Kerberos. That way, they can keep the connotation they want, but _

[Santosh83]

Much ado about nothing. We're adults and tech literate people and we can juggle more than one conflicting identifier in our heads considering we deal with stuff like C++ routinely.

If the project is technically good and they market it well, people will get used to the name and learn to distinguish between this and the auth protocol.

[ClumsyPilot]

We are adults and we can deal with being sneezed on, therefore lets get sneezed on as much as possible for no reason at all!

[collsni]

Java and JavaScript