Re: [Fsuk-manchester] Poorly named products

[allcoms]

Better name good, crap name inevitable is pretty much the rule

Would you want a world of progs called 'Word', 'Flight Sim', 'Clippy
the Paperclip' ie appname = app purpose

Nah! ffmpeg, libbeautifulsoup, k3b!

First I say don't sweat- its endemic in commercial software too. WTF
and why is my burning app called ashampoo, why Maya or Cubase or
what-have-you. Does non-desptive app names really bother anyone so
much? Its not a huge demand asking for somone to remember 1 word these
days is it? Of course, it is handy if the app name does give you a
hint as to its purpose but how many apps can you have called music
player, database, steganographer.. let us never hear this tawdry issue
raised again for I have slain it, ill off work on a Friday evening!

GIMP is a sensible name anyhow - guess what lots of use it for? GIMPin
about no doubt. It is the most famous one for sure but there are
naughtier ones I've seen like mingetty and lest we forget the great
'man bum'. It is one of the most significant apps in all FOSS being
the progenitor of GTK and in effect GNOME so mock it not, unless you
don't like GTK then fair game. They must have a military grade spam
filter fine-tuned to blocking out name change requests because they've
had LOTS of requests over the years since it began. I remember testing
the first release and it really was a turning point for free media,
say what you like about its gui.

Long live the GIMP!


On Fri, Dec 3, 2010 at 4:02 PM, Pete Morris
<address@hidden> wrote:
> Has no one else realised the dire sales tactic of naming your product 
> "nuisance"? You might as well have a word processor called "crasher" or a 
> game called "u-loose!"
>
> Seriously, we do have this skill for choosing the worst possible names. A 
> photo editor called "The Gimp!" (no doubt the paedophile's choice...)
>
> Pete
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: address@hidden [mailto:address@hidden On Behalf Of allcoms
> Sent: 03 December 2010 14:42
> To: Anna Morris
> Cc: address@hidden
> Subject: Re: [Fsuk-manchester] ubuntu day - the FINAL word
>
> Hi Anna n' the free software supporting denizens o' Mancunia and environs!
>
> Lovely, balanced and thoroughly enjoyable response that- you don't
> need to tell us you're a middle class writer girl - we'd guessed that
> long before you stated it. I won't hold you to the middle class or
> Leonard Cohen bits either- I'll admit some of it I could bounce a
> wince too. Please keep it up as this is famously a female starved area
> of interest so excuse my bouts of intense powr-geekery please.
>
> OK, its your event as you say and lengthy GNU philosophy lecture time
> it is! I am actually interested in the philosophical side of things-
> no one would dare discount that on this list seeing as its what puts
> the free into free software so I'm really looking forward to your spin
> on it but sadly the man on the street doesn't give a flying hoot. He
> tink "Make compooter work! NOW! No virusworm!" Thats because they also
> trust mainstream media, MS/Apple/Sun(Oracle!!!) and their government,
> churches etc... ooops! Thats another speech for another time.
>
> As you say Anna, you like Ubuntu and you realise the important of the
> GNU philosophy, hacker ethics etc. but what Mike (it was Mike who
> piped up about Debian first?) correctly noted is that RMS does not
> approve of Ubuntu- instead he uses a distro called gnewsense which is
> actually ubuntu but with all non-free software stripped away. Hence,
> to truly walk the walk and really be bothered to the point of doing a
> 30m+ philosophy bit we should be using gnewsense- I just hope jockey
> still works as it does under regular buntu- will get to try this
> weekend with any luck.
>
> It is just SOOO hard to not get nitpicky and upset in these situations
> isn't it? Trust me- this whole scenario is by design! I honestly hope
> I've not upset any of you, esp. Mike and Anna. I understand where
> you're both coming from and now I can't decide if I've helped with my
> distrowatch upbringing or screwed everyones heads. Both probably! :D
>
> Really looking forward to it - polite heckling is to be encouraged
> right? FREEDOM, if you don't mind ever so kindly Missus! If I do ever
> lose you Anna- just let me know and I'll be glad to de-geek it for
> you.
>
> No-ones piped up for SUSE or Fedora!? (ducks)
>
> Dan (allcomputerservices aka danboid)
>
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