GNU Privacy Guard

BeeP beep at topper.org
Thu Feb 19 11:31:33 CET 1998


At 01:46 PM 2/19/98 +0100, you wrote:
>I think we should now choose a name.
>Maybe there is better name than "GNU Privacy Guard" for GPG? 

As a marketeer, I must applaud your choosing of the TLA GPG! It's GREAT!
People KNOW what PGP is. Even my some of my non-computer using friends are
familiar with the acronym. Software callled GPG will have near-instant name
recognition. 

Also as a marketeer, I must insist you need GPG to stand for a name that
MEANS something to native-English speakers rather than merely native
Unix-speakers. For regular English-speakers, a name conveying information
about the product is imperative. As in:

Good Privacy Guard
Great Privacy Guard
etc.

or if it's ABSOLUTELY got to be silly, maybe something like

Great Privacy Gift
(My friends and I have been known to remark that privacy is something one
can "give".)
or Great Privacy Getter

Please skip the cutesy-poo "gnu" name. Since I see "Gnu" everywhere in the
Linix  world, I am pretty certain "gnu" means something special there. To
the rest of us native-English speakers "gnu" means an animal at a zoo. Your
product has the opportunity to be useful far beyond the
through-the-looking-glass world* of Linux. Please give it a name that will
provide information to every-day computer users.

I like Great Privacy Guard. It's descriptive and a bit of joke on PZ's
"pretty good" joke.

sincerely,
Bill

*In the Linux world, a popular graphics programs is called G.I.M.P. I
haven't a clue what the IVLA means. The article praising it to the heavens
in Linux Journal never explained the name. Since it's the engineer-named
world of Linux it could be something as information-free as "Gimp Is My
Product." My point? In the U.S., "gimp" is an EXTREMELY insulting word for
a disabled person. What kind of marketing is that?




More information about the Gnupg-devel mailing list