OneAndOneIs2

Tue, Jul 17, 2007

Linux has naming problems?

You may have heard the complaint - people who are determined to find fault with GNU/Linux complain about the non-intuitive names. How are people supposed to know that the graphics program is called "Gimp", that "Gnome" and "KDE" are popular GUIS, that "amaroK" is a music player, and so on.

(Because "powerpoint" is the most logical name for a slideshow, "excel" is a perfect description of a spreadsheet app, and what else would you look for to read a PDF file but "acrobat"?)

They say that the names of our distros and our applications are sloppy and unprofessional. Well, read 'em and weep!

If a company called "Fluffy Spider" can have a GUI called "FancyPants", then the hobbyist can damn well get away with having a graphics program called "The Gimp" [Smiley]

4 comments • Categories: Omni

Comments:

Comment from: hari [Member]

· http://hari.literaryforums.org

I have to wonder.. Should every software be named

"ABC's Wonderful Word Processor" or "XYZ's Powerful Spreadsheet Tool"?

GIMP would probably be named "GTK-Based Photo and Image Editing Tool"

Permalink 18/07/07 @ 05:28

Comment from: CreditHolder [Visitor]

I do not see, why try to find fault with Linux? It's a great and highly usable operating system. I do not think names are so much meaningful as long as it functions so expertly...

Permalink 18/07/07 @ 09:25

Comment from: Nicholas Butler [Visitor]

· http://www.loudmouthman.com

Macs are just as bad :Safari, Leopard , Fetch, entourage ?

as for the MSCamp well Internet Explorer makes sense but how does Outlook actually equate to a sensible name?

I guess its about the Brand telling you about its product which leads people to accept the image pretty much unquestionably.

How about this one then ?

Wii

Permalink 18/07/07 @ 19:32

Comment from: sokuban [Member]

We should rename the Gimp to something more like "The GNU Image Manipulation Program" rather than the Gimp so that people would be able to find the image editors easily.

Permalink 19/07/07 @ 08:37