Elementary OS changes codename ‘Isis’ due to situation in Iraq and Syria

The developers of Elementary OS, an Ubuntu-based distribution, have changed the codename for the new OS from Isis to Freya due to the situation in Iraq and Syria. The reason is the group of militants who are trying to establish an Islamic state under the same name.

The developers say they don’t want anything to do with or be associated with the militants. Elementary OS developers name their distributions with mythological gods and humans. For example, the first version of it is named after the Roman supreme god Jupiter and the previous distribution bears the name of the Roman moon goddess; Luna. The name Isis was chosen last August and referred to the Egyptian mother goddess, but this has been exchanged for the Nordic Freya.

The developers also report that the open beta of Freya is increasingly in sight, although they do not give a clear date for it yet. Elementary OS is a distribution that grew out of a number of tweaks developers wanted for Ubuntu. The developers decided to build their own distribution that is still fully compatible with Ubuntu. The aim of the developers is to use Elementary OS to offer a sleek desktop environment in which more continuity has been introduced in the user interface.