GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 160890
Change Gimp name
Last modified: 2004-12-22 21:47:04 UTC
Change Gimp name to something like PhotoMaster or PhotoMeister or make contest for new name. Gimp sounds unprofessional.
Reporter, do you have a bug tracker? I'd like to file a bug against you, since you have some severe problems and can only file useless bug reports instead of doing anything constructive.
Yosh, I understand why you closed this bug and I understand many people very much like the name "The GIMP". The name "The GIMP" causes no problems for most users, and it can also be called by the longer name The GNU Image Manipulation Program. Those outside the GIMP project have made use of generic names so that only the terms "Image Editor" appears in the menus of their distribution. The GIMP is even cited as one of the examples for this feature being necessary. Unfortunately a few English speakers associate the term "The GIMP" with the movie Pulp Fiction by Quentin Tarantino and do not see the humourous side and do not appreciate the mental associations of bondage and rape. http://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2003-October/msg00635.html Others associate the term with being lame or crippled and althought they don't necessarily consider the term offensive it doesn't make it any easier to market the GIMP to the few people that do. If minor changes can help encourage more people to use Free Software and try the GNU Image Manipulation Program then I think they are worth considering. Mozilla Firefox allows users to customize the name of the program that gets displayed in the titlebar. http://www.cosmicat.com/extensions/titletweak/ http://www.cosmicat.com/extensions/firesomething/ With so many other improvements in the GIMP the (rude, blunt) complaints on slashdot about the name are now becoming more visible and getting moderated up. http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=132130&cid=11041209 but even thought most of them are very crude, some of them are very insightful and explain how the name the GIMP makes it more difficult to market the program and encourage more people to use Free Software. It is a very good sign that gimp has gotten good enough that some users have nothing better left to complian about than the name. The issue was recently (past two or three months) brought up on the gimpwin-users list but I'm unable to find a link so far. This slashdot comment claims that schools are put off by the name which they consider because the name is "intolerant" and "derogatory" of special education students. http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=132130&cid=11041357 This comment explains the embarassment of explaining the name to an unimpressed handicapped user. http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=132130&cid=11044696 These are only two examples of recent comments but I have seen many more like them before. If the $APPNAME was consilidated in one place and it was made easier to change it would mean a few less user complaints and allow people to more effectively market the gimp to new audiences. I respectfully request that some consideration be given to those who have issues with the name and that this issue be given a chance to try and do something about it. By leaving this report open users complaining about the name can be directed here and encouraged to do something about it.
No, this bug remains closed because the bug reporter does not respect the project. Slashdot posts are not a justification for anything.
Can you explain that part: "bug reporter does not respect the project"? Thank you.
Yosh assumed that if you were serious you would not have suggested such silly names as PhotoMaster or PhotoMeister. That, and the fact that you filed this bug report immediately after filing another silly bug report.
As opposed to GIMP? :) Sorry had to do it. >Change Gimp name to something like PhotoMaster or PhotoMeister or >_make contest for new name_. Gimp sounds unprofessional. What is wrong with Photomaster? Anybody?
Googling around I found both of these names are occupied: http://www.epinions.com/pr-ACDSystems_ACD_PHOTOMASTER_SUITE_10_pms10wus10 http://www.photomeister.com/index_eng.html So much for silly names.
Bugzilla is the wrong place for such a discussion. If you really want to have it, please bring it up on the mailing-list.
Something very similiar was already brought up on the user mailing list very recently (I couldn't find it earlier because I thought it was on gimpwin but it was actually on the normal gimp-user list) http://www.mail-archive.com/gimp-user%40lists.xcf.berkeley.edu/msg06116.html The discussion made it completely clear that some people very much like the current project name and would be very unhappy if it was changed. I dont expect the GIMP to change the official project name, I think that would be unrealistic. My point is that if the minority of people that have issues with the project name and are willing to provide patches that make it easier to configure the name they should be added here. If you still would like I can ask on the developer list if there is any reason not to allow patches that allow the name to be changed and otherwise effect the branding of the GNU Image Manipulation program. bug 7379 (user interface) was left open for similar reasons, and even though none of the developers intend to change the project name by having a bug report open you can avoid arguing about it skip to asking people for patches to make the name/branding more easily configurable. Leaving this request open will give people one less thing to excuse to complain and serve as a challenge to do something about it instead.
Bug #7379 is open since we are willing to accept patches that abstract window handling in a way that allows other window handling backends to be put in place. I don't think this applies to this bug report since I am certainly not willing to accept patches that allow to configure the name.