FW: About names, or "are we really that unprofessional"

["Fulgham, Brent/SCO" <BFulgham@CH2M.com>]

I think Bruce is making a valid point.  While I appreciate and see the humor
in many of UNIX's historical naming conventions, I think the majority of
users in the "mainstream" will want more bland naming styles.  While I don't
find the terms "daemon" or the "chmod 666" commands to be especially
troublesome from my religious perspective, I have friends who do.  And if we
are truly working to create an OS "by the people, for the people, and of the
people", I think we owe it to "the people" to try to be as inoffensive as
possible.

We should not choose terminology that alienates or offends anybodies
religious beliefs.  What difference does the name of the executable make
anyway?  The functionality is what counts, and that is where these
impassioned debates should take place -- not on the nameing scheme.

Bruce is right.  We need to be making marketing decisions.  Much of the rest
of the world did not grow up reading J.R.R. Tolkein and playing Dungeons and
Dragons (TM).  Many mainstream users will neither understand nor appreciate
the context under which these commands were created.

Besides -- puns are the lowest form of humor, right?

-Brent


--
TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to
debian-devel-request@lists.debian.org . 
Trouble?  e-mail to templin@bucknell.edu .