Originally called Phoenix, since it was Netscape Navigator, reborn.
But Phoenix Technologies disliked that, so they renamed to a descriptive name for the same immortal bird – Firebird.
The Firebird database people would have none of that, so after a few-months gap between 0.x releases, they found the closest thing they possibly could which was not trademarked. It had nothing to do with the original name idea, fire being a weak link.
And we’ve been stuck with that stupid name for two decades.
Originally called Phoenix, since it was Netscape Navigator, reborn.
But Phoenix Technologies disliked that, so they renamed to a descriptive name for the same immortal bird – Firebird.
The Firebird database people would have none of that, so after a few-months gap between 0.x releases, they found the closest thing they possibly could which was not trademarked. It had nothing to do with the original name idea, fire being a weak link.
And we’ve been stuck with that stupid name for two decades.