GNU Privacy Guard

Tomas Fasth tomas.fasth at twinspot.net
Fri Feb 20 13:03:51 CET 1998


BeeP wrote:

> So let me see if I've got this straight: in order to understand the name of
> a product, for example:
> 
> GNU Privacy Guard

Come on, what's there to "understand"? It's just a name.
Since g10 is a GNU initiative why not have GNU in the name?
Also, GNU stands for something important in free software community.
There are many who can feel proud when GNU is referred to. Many who
contributed to the software quality it actually have come to represent.

I say, more GNU visability, not less!

> I need to go to some URL and educate myself? And otherwise I have a
> problem? And that is what you think of as marketing? What are you, a
> college professor?

Now, I'm not sure why I even bother to reply to this. Never the less,
please cut this crap about education and marketing, at least regarding
the naming of g10. There is no connection, period.
If g10 is free, are needed, and have good quality, then what's there to
market and educate? We just want a name that makes sense. GNU makes
sense.
A big difference between PGP and GNU software is that PGP is basically
"owned" by Phil Zimmerman and PGP Inc. It's a trademark and therefore
serve the commercial interests of the owner PGP Inc. Nothing wrong with
that. But on the other hand, GNU have a similar status but in the
non-commercial area. It stands for the honorable principle of gaining
code by sharing code. That should also count as valuable. GNU is an
intellectual property of the free software society.

> But no marketeer in his right mind would use the word "wog" in an
> American product name. It would just be stupid marketing.
> Like calling one's software Gimp.

I think you are way out of line here. Who are you to judge what to name
a piece of software? Only the creator have that right. So if you haven't
contributed to GIMP, GNU or whatever, just shut up, will you?

> An outcry? What sort of outcry? To whom? And by whom? Is there a "Linux
> outcry department"? How about a "Linux complaint department"? That would
> really be cool, because I have a LOT of complaints.

Oh, of course, while you're at it, why not campain an assult attack on
the Linux community as well. That would bring you many new friends, I'm
sure. And you really know what you're talking about, sure.
(sarcastic statement)

Complaints is not the way to do it. Make the improvements yourself,
present it on an appropriate Linux mailinglist and say, "here, this
works better, why not make it part of the main distribution?".

If you plan to continue with comments like that then make everybody a
favor and pull out of this list. Then we might actually be able to do
some real work here.

Tomas




More information about the Gnupg-devel mailing list