GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 312962
"Internet" is a proper noun
Last modified: 2006-01-02 13:57:33 UTC
The word "Internet" is a proper noun, and needs to be capitalized. #: interfaces/network.glade.in.h:61 msgid "_Set modem as default route to internet" #: src/services/service.c:38 src/services/service.c:39 msgid "Shares files though internet" #: src/services/service.c:41 msgid "Delivers your mails through internet" (Note also here that "mails" is a poor substitute for "email"... I'd rather see "Delivers your outgoing mail" or something) #: src/services/service.c:42 msgid "Synchronizes your computer clock with internet time servers" #: src/services/service.c:46 msgid "Shares your web pages through internet" (Shouldn't this be "over the Internet", not "through internet"?) #: src/time/main.c:466 msgid "" "Please install and activate NTP support in the system to enable " "synchronization of your local time server with internet time servers."
do you people think it's worth of a string freeze break? if so I'll request it Thanks
Definitely not worth it IMO. I know it was a bad time to have filed a bug report, but if I didn't do it I'd forget about it ::P I'd wait until after the freeze to change those strings.
Adam: if you create a patch now it can be attached and marked as commit_after_freeze, so nobody forgets about it. :)
Confirming the bug. Also - shouldn't it be _the_ Internet? (Not a native english speaker)
It's not clear that it is really a proper noun in regular conversation anymore. We don't capitalize Telephone Network, or Television, or Cellular Network. For more detail, see: http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,64596,00.html where Wired announced that they were no longer recommending capitalizing internet in their style guide.
While I agree with Luis that "Internet" should really cease to be a proper noun one of these days, I think that apps such as g-s-t would be better off maintaining formality. The more that people see tools like this as mature and professional, the more admins will feel comfortable switching to GNOME.
We're out of string-freeze now. Just poking around for anybody who's interested in fixing the few strings this bug refers to.
Paper style guides aren't modern enough to mention this. Dictionary.com and Wikipedia both capitalize, and Wikipedia explains why: "This article is about the Internet, the extensive, worldwide computer network available to the public. An internet is a more general term informally used to describe any set of interconnected computer networks that are connected by internetworking." It should definitely have a "the", except when the word is being used as a modifier. For example, "Synchronizes your computer clock with internet time servers" is correct apart from the matter of the capital letter.
If you don't believe that "internet" should be capitalized, I'm willing to go along with that. It doesn't look "right" to me to have it lowercase, but it makes more sense that way. However, can we at least please change the awkward "through internet" and "delivers your mails" strings?
Adam, it's just that I haven't branched (for several reasons), not that I don't want to change this
branched an string improvements committed, thanks :)