Maybe soon we'll all be saying No-VELL since Novell now owns and brands it. But for many it will remain SuSE, now matter how it's pronounced. How do you say it?
Some delicately roll "sOO-sie" off their tongues while others put on little French twist (and, perhaps, other little things), pronouncing it "sOO-zie." The Soozie-ists all reminisce about how it reminds them of their sister, mother, or past girlfriend. I read some heathen who joked in response to a Soozie-ist post with "... but if you knew SuSE like I know SuSE."
Then there are the those who side with Dr. Seuss, pronouncing it "SOOS." This was my preference for awhile since it avoids having to choose emphasis on one syllable or the other. Plus, it conveniently pronounces each "s" the same way. Except, with this logic, you might also try "ZOOZ." This could be a problem in dinner conversations where you talk about "current work on Zoos."
Some purists just punt the whole thing and call it "S" - "U" - "S" - "E." But this has its issues as well. It's agonizing to enunciate and can get you smacked when your audience thinks you're giving them a spelling lesson.
For whatever reason, the most common pronunciation seems to be "SU-sah," which sounds Spanish to me. Wikipedia confirms it. Here's a bit more Wikipedia background (thanks, Felix ):
The name "S.u.S.E.", later shortened to just "SuSE", was originally an acronym for the German phrase "Software- und System-Entwicklung" ("Software and system development"). The company is now simply called SUSE LINUX, and "SUSE" does not officially stand for anything any more.
As far as I know is Suse a company from Nürnberg, Germany and therefore pronounced "the german way" :) It is an abbreviation for 4 german words: System- und Software-Entwicklung (System and Software Development) oh and I just saw that wikipedia has a better article about it so I don't have to try to spell it "the american way" (I'm german). I'm not trying to be a smartass - but hope this helps :)
Posted by: felix | April 02, 2005 at 01:27 AM