On Sun, Oct 3, 2010 at 1:06 AM, Ron House <[email protected]> wrote:
> On 03/10/10 12:00, Antonio Olivares wrote: > >> --- On Sat, 10/2/10, Ron House<[email protected]> wrote: >> > > Names are a hard thing, but one lesson I have learned in 30 >>> years of software development is: for widespread acceptance >>> a good name matters much more than good content. (Sad but >>> true.) >>> >>> Examples: "Object-oriented programming" : All the ideas >>> were there in Simula 67 (yes, that's 1967), but until the >>> cool name, OOP, was invented, no one took any notice. Then >>> "Extreme programming", "Open Office", "relational database" >>> (just a cool name for the bad idea of busting up all the >>> objects and losing the natural hierarchies). I could think >>> of dozens if I spent another ten minutes at it. >>> >>> Another key lesson: Insiders are very, VERY bad at picking >>> good names for their own 'children'. >>> >>> This is not meant as an insult, but the key movers and >>> shakers here, to whom we all owe the very existence of this >>> wonderful project, are most likely the least able to judge a >>> good name. >>> >>> And "LibreOffice" is a very poor name. >>> >>> Reasons: >>> >>> 1/ "Libre" is an insider's term. Ask any but a romance >>> language speaker or a free software supporter what it means. >>> Seriously, ask your mum, your boss, your students, the guy >>> serving at the local deli. The name is doomed to >>> misunderstanding and obscurity. Geeks will give you lots of >>> good feedback and you'll judge you got it right, but you >>> haven't, and you need to actually try the little experiment >>> I just gave if you want to see why. >>> >>> 2/ As Mirek explains, the pronunciation breaks the rules, >>> and showing disrespect for the rules of the linguistic >>> source of a term doesn't seem like a sensitive or a >>> politically wise thing to do. >>> >>> 3/ Also as Mirek points out, the adjacent vowels make the >>> word hard to roll off the tongue by a speaker of any >>> language. (It occurs to me as I write this that (2) and (3) >>> could be fixed by calling it "OfficeLibre".) >>> >>> Thus my only disagreement with Mirek's comments: "If nobody >>> else thinks it's an issue..." - the people here (again, with >>> apologies) are all self-selected for their in-depth >>> knowledge of the field, love of the software, love of the >>> ideals, and understanding of the jargon. All of us (myself >>> included) are almost certain to have a useless opinion on >>> what would actually be a good name. >>> >>> So, this is just a recommendation, but one which I know is >>> worth doubling the support base: Get a better name. Even >>> something pedestrian like "Free Office" would do much >>> better. And of course, if someone could conjure up that rare >>> animal, the magic name, well who knows...? >>> >>> And PS: Don't worry about having already announced the >>> name: it was stated it was temporary and it's a name >>> destined for forgetability in any case. >>> >>> -- Ron Hous >>> >> >> I also am sorry to butt in this conversation. But IMHO, the name does n o >> t matter. It is the software, the freedom to work with it. This softw >> are has been created before a major catastrophe occurs, i.e, Oracle a bi g >> c >> ompany controls|controlled OpenOffice.org as soon as it bought Sun >> Microsys >> tems. Now they have killed OpenSolaris, their next target would have be e >> n, ..., yes OpenOffice. Before that occured, some kind people have deci d >> ed to protect the software before that happens. >> > > Absolutely the right policy. 100% support from me for this wonderful > development. > > > LibreOffice, is an office suite that is "Libre", meaning free, not only >> fre >> e in speech but free in mostly every aspect like free and open source. I >> t is also "Libre", meaning free from control of a single company or a >> singl >> e person. It champions free software and will continue what OpenOffice. o >> rg started a while back. >> > > And there you have the problem: You have to explain it. Good marketing > requires that you engage with customers' existing understanding and > expectations. "Well, you see, the name come from..." "Yeah, forget it." > > The name should not matter, what matters is that users of OpenSource/Fre e >> S >> oftware folks have an office suite that is not tied up to a single compa ny >> or entity that will control the code. >> >> Antonio >> > > Again, exactly correct: the name _should_ not matter. Unfortunately names > _do_ matter. Bad names do and have sunk good projects, whilst good names > have successfully sold bad projects. > > > -- > Ron House > Building Peace: http://peacelegacy.org > Australian Birds: http://wingedhearts.org > Principle of Goodness academic site: http://principleofgoodness.net > -- > To unsubscribe, send an empty e-mail to > [email protected]<discuss%2bunsubscr...@document foundation.org> > All messages you send to this list will be publicly archived and cannot b e > deleted. > List archives are available at > http://www.documentfoundation.org/lists/discuss/ > > For the record LibreOffice is perfect in Italian, Spanish and Portguese and most Romantic languages so I guess just certain language could struggle wit h the pronuciation. Also Libre come from FLOSS, most people know and pronounc e Free/Libre/Open Source Software with no issue including americans. Libre means Free from freedom, so there is really a more exact cognotaion since Open Source vs Free Software, LibreOffice get us back to freedom and not just being open. -- *Alexandro Colorado* *OpenOffice.org* Español http://es.openoffice.org -- To unsubscribe, send an empty e-mail to [email protected] All messages you send to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted. List archives are available at http://www.documentfoundation.org/lists/discuss/
