As "just a regular user" and node runner who just poked around a few PRs, the 
main issues I have with this are 1) "what the Hell is Locutus" and 2) wow 
that's confusing.

Sure, 1) is just (mostly) a rhetorical question. But it seems quite an unusual 
thing to "steal" the name of a software (even more so when said software is 
still actively maintained) to stamp it on another software that doesn't have 
any relationship with the other one beside being supported by the same 
foundation and sharing the same (or a similar enough) mission statement.

While I do understand the reasoning of "I can't come up with a better name to 
describe what we're doing", boy, how confusing is that. 20-something year old 
software suddenly becomes totally different. Imagine Mozilla rebranding 
"Thunderbird" as "Firefox" and "Firefox" as "Firefox Classic" (and on top of 
that you've never head of Thunderbird), what a mess this would be.

As far as suggestions go, even though (if it's not obvious) I don't support 
this change either (I would rather prefer, for instance, "Freenet Locutus" vs 
"Freenet Classic", dropping "Freenet [period]" instead of hijacking it), my 
suggestion would be to find a way to make it crystal clear that names were 
swapped and to point out clearly and concisely the key differences between the 
"old" Freenet and the "new" one.

On Tue, Jan 17, 2023, at 15:04, Ian Clarke wrote:
> Dear Freenet users and developers,
>
> I hope this email finds you well. I am writing to inform you of an 
> important change that the Freenet Project board voted on unanimously on 
> Friday. After much discussion over the past 18 months, we have decided 
> to rename the codebase and software known internally as "Fred," to 
> "Freenet Classic."
>
> In addition, we are announcing that the new codebase, known internally 
> as "Locutus," will be renamed to "Freenet." We understand that this is 
> a big change and it carries risk, but the board believes that this risk 
> is necessary in order to further the project's mission.
>
> It is important to note that this change does *not* mean that Locutus 
> is replacing Fred, which solves related but different problems. We will 
> ensure that where Fred is the appropriate tool for people they will be 
> directed to it.  Freenetproject.org will remain focused on Fred while 
> linking to Locutus - as it has been for over two decades - while 
> freenet.org will place more emphasis on Locutus, while still linking to 
> Fred.
>
> We will be implementing these changes over the coming days and weeks 
> and would be grateful for your ideas and suggestions on how best to do 
> this.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Ian
>
> -- 
> Ian Clarke
> Founder, The Freenet Project
> Email: i...@freenetproject.org

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