vabijou2 wrote:

Christopher Howard-3 wrote:

Its about having a product you aren't afraid to advertise. ..... As soon as I say "GIMP," you can see
the doubt on their faces, because they associate the word with being weak or lame.

I agree with this. Many people shy away from using products that aren't mainstream, and have little to do with (or knowledge of) open source software alternatives. There is nothing about the current name that inspires confidence or denotes competence.

But seriously, neither Adobe's software, nor the GIMP are mainstream products. Most people have never heard of either. The people who would know about them are not going to be bothered by this. Artists and a lot less rigid than most people.

Patrick

On Sat, Oct 31, 2009 at 2:12 PM, vabijou2 wrote:

Christopher Howard-3 wrote:

Its about having a product you aren't afraid to advertise. ..... As soon as I say "GIMP," you can see
the doubt on their faces, because they associate the word with being weak or lame.

I agree with this.  Many people shy away from using products that aren't mainstream, and have little to do with (or knowledge of) open source

I have to agree that Photoshop *is* mainstream to the degree that image editing is -- as a verb at least.. people use PAINT.NET or whatever and say they 'photoshopped' it.

I think Patrick is missing that 'mainstreamness' is relative (theres 'mainstream for the culture', 'mainstream for artists in that culture', 'mainstream for digital artists in that culture', 'mainstream for pixel artists in that culture'.. these levels of detail nest to produce the overall context in which something can be said to be mainstream or not.

software alternatives.  There is nothing about the current name that inspires confidence or denotes competence.

Personally I don't recall ever encountering a program whose name inspired confidence or denoted competence to me, in this out-of-context way you are talking about. Except perhaps Lotus 1-2-3.

For example, the following inspire confidence in me and I feel they are competent. Perhaps they have some common factor, I think it's more likely that it's just an understanding of how they work (and that that way is a good way to work) that inspires confidence and 'denotes' competence

Python IPython PyTables NumPy SciPy Allegro Grafx2 Charm DosBox Lua Inkscape FontForge SQLite Lynx Midnight-Commander Thunar

It looks like there is a 'Mildly witty' theme going there, along with a preference for literality and brevity. OTOH it could be simply that witty, literal-minded people tend to produce software I find competent.

I think that the time to change the name would be when a release comes out that has an option to run in a single window.  This is a major change that people have requested for some time and this new configuration is sure to be discussed widely on the internet.  That version could be called something like "Gimp+".  Over time this might become shortened in blogs, forums, etc. to "G+",

'jeeples'? lol. I'm sure the FSF people would like it :) How do we verb it though? jeepling? BWAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA. (more seriously, G+ is extremely close to the name of the gnu C++ compiler, G++)

At the 'G+' point, the major internal renaming would need to take place, and that would require
far more developers and far more organization than the GIMP project currently has.
Even simply switching from GIMP to GIMP+ (I'm -1 on 'Gimp+') would involve considerable effort (mainly in keeping I18N current).

and then a later major release could use that as the name.  The whole time, Wilber the mascot would remain basically the same to provide continuity.  I'm no ad wizard so I don't claim this is the best naming strategy, but I think it provides an example of how the rebranding process could go.

On Saturday 31 October 2009, vabijou2 wrote:

Speaking again as a non-programmer, why would anything have to change internally?

Many internal names have "gimp" in them, and future generations of programmers should not have to ask themselves what that stands for when nobody knows "GIMP" anymore.

So while changing names internally is not strictly required, it would be very very much recommended.

Daniel

vabijou2 wrote:

Christopher Howard-3 wrote:

Its about having a product you aren't afraid to advertise. ..... As soon as I say "GIMP," you can see
the doubt on their faces, because they associate the word with being weak or lame.

I agree with this. Many people shy away from using products that aren't mainstream, and have little to do with (or knowledge of) open source software alternatives. There is nothing about the current name that inspires confidence or denotes competence.

I think that the time to change the name would be when a release comes out that has an option to run in a single window. This is a major change that people have requested for some time and this new configuration is sure to be discussed widely on the internet. That version could be called something like "Gimp+". Over time this might become shortened in blogs, forums, etc. to "G+", and then a later major release could use that as the name. The whole time, Wilber the mascot would remain basically the same to provide continuity. I'm no ad wizard so I don't claim this is the best naming strategy, but I think it provides an example of how the rebranding process could go.

If the devels ever did come over to the other side on this issue, the coolest way to go about picking a new name would be a contest. For example, have a web page where people suggest a name or vote on a list of names. Then the devs could pick from the top 5.

Imagine the publicity and recognition the project would get the moment word got out about the contest! It would be on every blog and news site in the FOSS universe!