Recently we talked about some of the problems encountered by The HeliOS Project concerning the name GIMP within our custom respin. This is the distro we put on our computers going to disadvantaged kids.
Roughly 15 percent of our kids suffer disabilities of one sort or another. After an especially angry reaction from a parent who was offended by the name GIMP in the menus, we decided that it might be best to change the name locally, and specifically for our respin.
I decided I wasn't going to experience another a$$-chewing of this magnitude again...not behind something that can be fixed easily.
So we asked readers to help us come up with a new name for GIMP....again just for our custom distro. We've added no new features, we simply will change the name throughout the program itself. We will also be working on a new splash for our use.
The arguments or comments against doing so have already been made. If you feel the need to expound on those, you can do so in the comments here. As well, we are not asking the developers of GIMP to follow suit. The original developers named their program and I don't think approaching them to change it is productive.
If it hasn't happened by now, it isn't going to happen.
We received well over two hundred serious suggestions. We've taken a week to cull through them and see what might be suitable, viable and not open to copyright or trademark infringement. Even though our little respin is only put on a few hundred machines a year, you never know...our society seems to be at it's litigious best these days.
Any businesses who have registered DBA's with similar names have cleared us for use of the name.
So here are the candidates. My thanks to those who submitted ideas or suggestions. This is the narrowed-down field:
ArtForge
Picture This
PhotoCraft
GraphixFox
ArtShop
As it turns out, the poll widget offered by Blogger is buggy beyond belief and we have removed it. Just vote for your choice with a one word response in the comments and we will compile from there. Sorry, we can only allow one vote per IP address. We have extended the voting deadline to the 20th of May due to the extra time it took to contact any businesses with like names offered here.
All-Righty Then
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Your Vote Counts...
blather and mumbling provided by Unknown at 11:09 AM
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59 comments:
GraphixFox
ArtForge
ArtShop
ImageWorks
This is the email I sent to Ken...
I vote for ArtForge. The name sounds good, is easy to pronounce,
doesn't limit to photos only and sounds enough like SourceForge to
please uber-geeks like me who want some sort of linuxy connection in the name. Plus ArtForge will show up first in alphabetical lists which is important if the gimp folks adopt the name someday (or if someone forks gimp)
ArtShop sounds too much like photoshop and I can see that causing a legal issue in the future AND the name sounds like a place to shop for art supplies, not a program for editing pictures.
GraphixFox doesn't roll off the tounge. ImageWorks and PhotoCraft sound like photo programs, not artwork programs, thus users might skip over them when browsing the menu.
Picture This is a great name for something, just not for gimp. I like sound of it, tho. Maybe we should suggest it as a replacement name for gtkam.
ImageWorks sounds familiar, i can't place it though, google sends me here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imageworks
i don't think that is a good idea.
ArtForge is a movie production management software by a french company: http://www.hd3d.fr/en/?langue=en
they may not have picked up a trademark in the US but even if they pick one up later they would win, unless you register a trademark now.
for the rest i follow bohu's reasoning.
in any case if you want to be safe with the name the best way would be to really do pick up a trademark. if the process fails you know the name is not good (unless it fails because the name is to generic)
that said, i am wondering why you even pick a trademarkable name?
you want something descriptive, and your best defense of not running into conflicts is to pick something generic. something that is not destinctive and thus unlikely to be picked as a product name. something that can not be trademarked.
greetings, eMBee.
@ McBee...
We've already worked the details and a software package is not in conflict with any DBA, at least here in the US.
But the blog post is about voting for a choice...
???
my vote is "none of the available choices".
the reasons are in the previous comment.
of the offered names only artforge sounds good, but i have the hope that others pick up on your work and spread the renaming a bit beyond the helios project. not much, just enough to get noticed.
i believe that the current developers didn't rename their product because there was only shouting, noone was actually doing the work and implementing a solution. just like gcc didn't change until someone forked it or xfree86 didn't change until xorg, my hope is that history will record that gimp didn't change until helios made them.
for that the name "artworks" is a problem because it doesn't work in france or probably in europe (given european union trademark laws)
i know you are not aiming for that, but i think it would be nice to keep options open.
a lot of people are talking, but you are doing!
greetings, eMBee.
ps: who is McBee?
Point taken and considered. Thanks.
LOL...spelling error. Get a nick that has spell check.
;-)
h
ArtForge
Winter
I suggest Artwork. It's generic enough that the topical Wikipedia article comes up in the first Google page. It doesn't seem to have strong trademark claims on it.
1 GraphixFox
2 ArtForge
1 GraphixFox
mmm... I'm going with ArtForge
More because I can't think of anything else to call it.
I wish you well on your project and distribution.
TsueDesu
ArtCraft
ArtForge
also, keep up the good work!
PhotoCraft
artforge
GraphixFox
ArtShop
Ipulus or Grafbox
KISS:
Just name it Wilber, after the GIMP mascot. Or more descriptively, Wilber van Gogh
PhotoCraft
ArtShop
ArtForge
But that's just because I have to pick off this list. My real preference would be "none of the above" and spend some more time generating better suggestions. I can't shake the feeling that there must be a far better name out there.
ArtShop
Can I vote for my own submission?
PhotoCraft
GraphixFox
ArtForge
GraphixFox
ArtShop
GraphixFox
PhotoCraft
ImageWorks is to similar to Imageworx, a graphic design and printer in the US. My vote would be for ArtForge
ArtForge, please
ArtForge
PhotoCraft
1) ImageWorks
2) ArtForge
ArtForge
ArtForge
John Kerr
ArtForge
Graphfox
I think you need to to be simple with this decision. You are making it much harder than it needs to be. The icon for GIMP is Wilber, and it resembles a dog, not a fox (or am I wrong?). Anyway, I like these: 1) ArtDoggy, 2) ArtPup, 3) ArtPupil, or 4) some derivative of Wilber & art (or a synonym of art).
If Wilber is a fox, then ArtFox. Ranks up there with Firefox.
Artshop
Not because I want to complicate matters any worse than they already are, but what about "Articulate"? The definition of articulate is: (verb) "Express (an idea or feeling) fluently and coherently". That's what you do with GIMP now, only instead of using words, you articulate with an image
It has the word "art" in it. If you wanted to you could say "ARTiculate", just to highlight the art in the word.
I do like ARTiculate, but it's not in the short list, so I'll have to go with ImageWorks
Picture This
ArtForge
ArtForge
Artshop :)
PhotoCraft is good too.
Both ImageWorks and PhotoCraft are nice plays on words that have connotations of being able to do things, they conjure up the notion of possibilities unfolding, as indeed does Articulate.
ArtForge does to an extent but I believe ImageWorks and PhotoCraft convey that message to more people.
Picture This
is a great name.
May I also suggest you consider looking at the mtpaint app. I found it easier to use than gimp for what I wanted to do.
Picture This and Picture That
ARTiculate.
(wth, I've always done my own thing anyway)
ArtForge
ArtForge should be the new name.
I'd vote "PaintFox" if it was there :)
But otherwise, ArtForge. It's a nice description of what the program does.
PictureThis, sounds like a photo viewer or editor only, as does PhotoCraft. ArtShop, well I think the Shop part is not immediately obvious what it does.
GraphixFox is nice, but I don't like the x for Graphics, I'm also not sure "graphics" is quite the right word...
ArtForge
1. ARTiculate
2. ArtForge
If you are willing to accept a new entry - go with "IMP" - fits the icon and still maintains the underlying meaning of the acronym. If no new entries are allowed - then I would pick "ArtShop".
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