I may be nitpicking irellevant details, but I just can't help it.
Why are they using the Norwegian/Nordic letter Ø (pronounced almost like "uh" in English) in their name, a letter most people in the world can't type, if they want to get traction?
"The Ø in ØMQ is all about tradeoffs. On the one hand this strange name lowers ØMQ's visibility on Google and Twitter. On the other hand it annoys the heck out of some Danish folk who write us things like "ØMG røtfl", and "Ø is not a funny looking zero!" and "Rødgrød med Fløde!", which is apparently an insult that means "may your neighbours be the direct descendants of Grendel!" Seems like a fair trade.
Originally the zero in ØMQ was meant as "zero broker" and (as close to) "zero latency" (as possible). Since then, it has come to encompass different goals: zero administration, zero cost, zero waste. More generally, "zero" refers to the culture of minimalism that permeates the project. We add power by removing complexity rather than by exposing new functionality."
Actually, it long predates computers, handwritten and typeset materials as far back as the 12th century use it. As it turns out, it's frustrating when two common characters look so similar.
Empty set / dot matrix zero, as others point out. Plus there is near reflectional symmetry across the midline of the M given the morphology of the Ø and the Q.
Anyway. If that's the underlying logic... How does communicating "empty set MQ" to your visitors work when you want to market the product with the name "zero MQ"? What do I search for when I remember "empty set MQ"?
To me this just doesn't add up. It looks like an attempt at doing "something cool" gone a bit off target.
Edit: The replies to my original comment here also seems to back up the point that this is not very clear or universal communication.
Why are they using the Norwegian/Nordic letter Ø (pronounced almost like "uh" in English) in their name, a letter most people in the world can't type, if they want to get traction?