Francesco Poli wrote:
If these names are unacceptable, I begin to be concerned that users won't be able to find the right packages or type the right shell commands, without having to remember weird mutant names from outer space... :-( Don't you feel that many users will use that really cool StormyFlyingAnimal MUA without even knowing it actually is Mozilla Thunderbird with some distro-specific adaptations? "Mozilla Thunderbird" could be a brand of quality, but who will acknowledge this, when nobody knows he/she is actually using that program?
This is the entire point, isn't it? :-) We want people to use Thunderbird in Debian, and to know they are using Thunderbird, and to get the high quality experience people get from using our Thunderbird. And we want to come to some arrangement with Debian to make that possible.
However, you guys want the freedom to ship software that sucks - or, more to the point and more likely, want to be able to easily give your software to other people and allow them to make it suck and then ship it. If that software ships using our trademarks, then that is incompatible with our trademark goals. So if we can't come to some arrangement that lets Debian use them but asks redistributors to contact us or remove them, then it's increasingly looking like we can't square this circle :-(
We're happy to say that Debian doesn't tend to ship software that sucks - but you want the freedom to do so, and let others do so. And I understand that. :-)
Gerv