I give up! What is in a name?

[fconsult]

Dear Pentaho folks,


I hate being the guy that didn't RTFM, but I have to give up. What does the name Pentaho means, where did it came from, what is in it, after all? I've been searching for this for about two years and I have to accept I am not able to find it out. Please, I need help.

Thank you a lot and best regards,


Fábio
humbly defeated

[bugg_tb]

http://community.pentaho.com/faq/general.php

Where does the name Pentaho come from?

Allegedly from the Pentaho Indians, who might have settled in Florida in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and may or may not have been responsible for domesticating the West Indian Manatee. According to some reports, prior to the mid-nineteenth century, manatees were aggressive animals; faster than a porpoise, with a belligerent nature and a penchant for grabbing oars and tipping canoes. Some accounts assert that the manatee problem became so severe that trade and communication along the waterways of Florida became almost impossible. The alleged Pentaho Indians, in an attempt to improve communication and trade amongst Indian nations, set about to tame the wild manatees. After identifying the high caffeine content of water hyacinth as a primary factor, they invented a selective breeding program for the aquatic plant to remove the stimulant from the disruptive mammal's diet. They were so successful that today the manatee is a slow moving, docile animal. The Pentaho Indians have never been given credit in the history books for this unbelievable feat, possibly because we made them up. Or perhaps not.

That took about 30 seconds Although it depends on how much you believe them

[Taqua]

Well, the FAQ offers this 'official wisdom' (via: Community -> FAQs -> General FAQ; http://community.pentaho.com/faq/general.php )

Where does the name Pentaho come from?
Allegedly from the Pentaho Indians, who might have settled in Florida in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and may or may not have been responsible for domesticating the West Indian Manatee. According to some reports, prior to the mid-nineteenth century, manatees were aggressive animals; faster than a porpoise, with a belligerent nature and a penchant for grabbing oars and tipping canoes. Some accounts assert that the manatee problem became so severe that trade and communication along the waterways of Florida became almost impossible.

The alleged Pentaho Indians, in an attempt to improve communication and trade amongst Indian nations, set about to tame the wild manatees. After identifying the high caffeine content of water hyacinth as a primary factor, they invented a selective breeding program for the aquatic plant to remove the stimulant from the disruptive mammal's diet. They were so successful that today the manatee is a slow moving, docile animal. The Pentaho Indians have never been given credit in the history books for this unbelievable feat, possibly because we made them up. Or perhaps not.

[fconsult]

Thank you very much for your precious time on someone so stupid like me. I knew it had to be somewhere veeeery obvius! Yet so, I was not able to find it - shame on me.

[]s,

Fabio

[ingo.klose]

There is also a more boring version from an interview with Doug Moran:

GM: Where does the name come from?

DM: One of the hardest parts of doing a startup is coming up with a good name. I think it's actually harder than developing the product. Obviously, the name has to be distinctive and available but we also wanted to make sure it didn't tie us into a specific area of BI or technology. We wanted it to be short, easy to remember, have no implied meaning and generate unique results on a Google search. We settled on Pentaho, pronounced like "Lake Tahoe," with the "penta" for five guys and "ho" because it just sounded right.

If you like, there is a better story about derivation of the name in our FAQ, which demonstrates that our ability to be creative is much greater than our ability to name a company.

http://www.computerworlduk.com/toolb...ryid=1056&pn=1

Reagards,
Ingo

[jternent]

The fact that it's perilously close to an insult in Spanish probably has nothing to do with the fact that Doug couldn't spell "dummkopf".