I generally associate negative connotations with so-called, as in
the "so-called free world". I wouldn't use it just to name something,
as in "the kernel is written in the so-called C language". so-called
implies "it's called this, but it's not".
Two imo dubious occurrences in the install notes. It's not a so-called
MBR partition; it is an MBR partition. Similarly with hppa LIF.
There's one other use in loongson about initrd which seems ok.
(There is another definition of so-called which isn't negative, as in
"if you want a great OS check out OpenBSD, so-called because the
source is all open". But that's not how so-called is used below.)
Index: m4.common
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/src/distrib/notes/m4.common,v
retrieving revision 1.99
diff -u -p -r1.99 m4.common
--- m4.common 4 Dec 2013 23:20:19 -0000 1.99
+++ m4.common 25 Jan 2014 00:54:18 -0000
@@ -477,8 +477,8 @@ dnl Describes MBR partitioning. So much
dnl duplicated 5 times.
dnl
define({:-OpenBSDInstallMBRPart1-:},
-{:- Disks on OpenBSD/MACHINE are partitioned using the so-called
- ``MBR'' partitioning scheme. You will need to create one
+{:- Disks on OpenBSD/MACHINE are partitioned using the ``MBR''
+ partitioning scheme. You will need to create one
MBR partition, in which all the real OpenBSD partitions will
be created.-:})dnl
dnl
Index: hppa/install
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/src/distrib/notes/hppa/install,v
retrieving revision 1.24
diff -u -p -r1.24 install
--- hppa/install 4 Dec 2013 23:20:19 -0000 1.24
+++ hppa/install 25 Jan 2014 00:54:33 -0000
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ Booting from Network:
reasonably portable to other UN*X-like operating systems. More information
on diskless booting can be found in the OpenBSD diskless(8) manual page.
- Your MACHINE expects to be able to download a so-called LIF (``Logical
+ Your MACHINE expects to be able to download a LIF (``Logical
Interchange Format'') image, containing both the boot code and the kernel,
via the HP rboot protocol, for older firmware, or via the bootp protocol,
for more recent firmware.
