On 12/10/05, Jean Hollis Weber <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Whether any of that means we should change the name of the > product is a different question. But the arguments for keeping > the "org" don't impress me at all.
I just did a Dogpile search of "Open Office" - Dogpile is a meta-search site that searches Google, MSN, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, Looksmart, and About. It gives you a "Best of all engines" list of results, and lets you see what the actual results are from each listing. All of the results (some 70 plus in all) on the first page were about OpenOffice.org, Star Office, the Open Office file format, or MS Office "Opening" there format. There was no mention of any other product or company named "Open Office". Some of the results were for books about OOo. Some were for addons, like the WriterPerfect thing, but all of them were about OOo, SO, or MSO. No mention of any kind of Office furniture, Office space, or anything of the sort. All the result were about an Office Suite of programs of some form or another. Only when I went to the next page did anything start to branch away. And even then, it was because Dogpile doesn't do quotes very well - and nothing was mentioned about any other company, program, service, or product named "Open Office". I don't think because a few places in the world have something called "Open Office" that sells furniture or business real estate that we can't use that name. Many companies use names in some countries that they can't in others. Look at Gmail - in the UK it has to be called Google Mail because Gmail was already taken. I'd say we can drop the .org in those countries (which seem to be the vast majority) where the name "Open Office" isn't already taken. In those countries where it is, we officially keep the .org, or, again, just add "Suite" - something like that - something that *isn't* taken. Since when can you only have one company named something in a whole country anyway. I mean, how many "Bob's Barbershops" are there in the US? Or "Steve's Shoes" in the UK? Does it have to do with the website, because we're not going to change the website to openoffice.com or openoffice.eu or openoffice.il - it's going to stay .org so were' not looking to hijack somebody's existing website. I really think the .org needs to go. It's not cool. It's not easy to remember. It's not normal. It's not catchy. It's a mouthful, nit-picky, and ubergeeky. -- - Chad Smith http://www.gimpshop.net/ Because everyone loves free software!
