< big snip > > 4. An application should always be named with the target audience being > considered if you're looking for product exposure. In the case of The > Gimp, the target audience is not programmers and software developers. > When the intended audience sees the name they need it to relate to > "graphics" in their thoughts. The word Gimp does not even come close. It > gives us mere mortals absolutely no indication of what it actually is or > does, even though it has tremendous artistic and image manipulation > capabilities.
This may have been said before, if so, I am sorry. I presume that readers of this list come from many parts of the world yet most of the critics of the name Gimp refer to English meanings. The question is, must a product describe its purpose by its name? Very often it is considered bad practice for a name to do this. The name may infer the purpose without actually being descriptive. If a truly neutral name can be found then that is the one to use. Great care needs to be used in choosing names for products with a world wide potential. Remember the famous example of Rolls Royce, who named their new car Silver Mist. The name was quickly withdrawn. Ask a German and learn why. Now, who can tell me what Gimp means in French or German or Italian or Russian or Chinese to mention but a few? Similarly, what is Photoshop in those languages so that the name shows its purpose? If there are no satisfactory answers to these 2 simple questions then I suggest this thread should stop as it is meaningless. Norman _______________________________________________ Gimp-user mailing list Gimp-user@lists.XCF.Berkeley.EDU https://lists.XCF.Berkeley.EDU/mailman/listinfo/gimp-user
