Dear EMC Board, you recently announced the decision to rename EMC2, see below.
I do not take issue with the renaming decision per se - legal conditions are what they are, and while I don't hear the 'buzz' just yet, I believe a unique term will help, for instance better search engine results for both parties. I understand EMC Corporations interest in unique brand identity. However, I doubt that even the whackiest lawyer would have demanded to replace every occcurence of the string 'emc' under emc2-dev with 'linuxcnc', with serious impact on existing configurations. Given the 'emc' string criterion and your approach to the problem, probably half of the projects at sourceforge, github and code.google.com would have been affected. It will take a long time to completely recover from your approach to handling EMC's request, and it is completely at odds with your general emphasis on 'stability' which repeatedly leads to ignoring, and in effect discouraging changes or improvements which go beyond incremental meandering along the status quo. In my view you have clearly gone overboard with *what* is to change *by when*, and you have done so by announcing the decision, and going ahead firing up renaming scripts all over the place without appropriate diligence, including lone decisions what kind of backwards compatibility is to end when, and on a just-about-to-be released branch (!). I am sure your acted in good faith, and I ascribe the current mess to a lack of experience in dealing with such a legal request, which I explicitly do *not* blame you for. However, since this is an open collaboration, I fail to understand why you did not publish the correspondence with EMC Corporation; there is a distinct chance that somebody in this community has relevant experience with such requests, and the outcome might have looked very different. I do encourage you to publish the correspondence, even if it is a bit late now. What I do blame you for, and what I take issue with, is the style and attitude in which you have come to, and implemented your decision, which is symptomatic for how the EMC2 project is run, and what is wrong with it from a steering perspective: After years of inactivity, complete silence on current and future issues, and the complete failure to drive any meaningful planning and strategy discussion, leave along seeing through results of such plans, not only myself have come to the conclusion that as an entity the board either does not exist, is completely defunct, or an old boys club which does not perceive the need to communicate beyond their inner circle and basically focuses on private coding interests. And then you suddenly wake up, and without any public discussion worth speaking of what the goal actually is, and how it can be attained (it is NOT replacing every occurence of 'emc' under emc2-dev), or considering alterative or phased approaches you go ahead, and break things big time. I understand the tendency of long-time developers to treat a repository as home directory extension, and I fall into that habit sometimes as well by now. And yes, the dust will settle. However, I remind you that a board is primarily a social function: steering, driving and moderating discussion and goal setting, summarizing results, check whether goals have been attained, and taking corrective action if not. And asking opinions and listening. In my view you are not fulfilling this role at all, and the situation at hand is a proof in point. I hope you take my words by my intent, which is to improve the situation. I do not intend to insult anybody, and I do appreciate individual contributions wherever they come from. However, I see the need to name a defect when I see one, and it is time to take corrective action. I also encourage the community at large to consider a board's role, and spell out their expectations - it is unfair to blame somebody for failing to meet goals which are not clearly spelled out. - Michael btw: what are the intended board terms of service? Am 18.01.2012 um 03:16 schrieb Chris Radek: > In the spring of 2011, the LinuxCNC Board of Directors was contacted > by a law firm representing EMC Corporation (www.emc.com) about the use > of "EMC" and "EMC2" to identify the software offered on linuxcnc.org. > EMC Corporation has registered various trademarks relating to EMC and > EMC^2 (EMC with superscripted numeral two). > > After a number of conversations with the representative of EMC > Corporation, the final result is that, starting with the next major > release of the software, linuxcnc.org will stop identifying the > software using "emc" or "EMC", or those terms followed by digits. To > the extent that the LinuxCNC Board of Directors controls the names > used to identify the software offered on linuxcnc.org, the board has > agreed to this. > > As a result, it was necessary to choose a new name for the software. > Of the options the board considered, there was consensus that > "LinuxCNC" is the best option, as this has been our website's name for > years. > > In preparation for the new name, we have received a sub-license of the > LINUX(R) trademark from the Linux Foundation > (http://www.linuxfoundation.org), protecting our use of the LinuxCNC > name. (LINUX(R) is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the > U.S. and other countries.) > > The rebranding effort will include the linuxcnc.org website, the IRC > channels, and versions of the software and documentation starting with > 2.5.0. Rebranding will begin right away. > > If you like, you can help us by updating name references on the wiki > (http://wiki.linuxcnc.org), or by contributing graphics such as a new > splash screen image or a new cover for the manual. > > There is no need for anything like a legal defense fund or a letter > writing campaign to the EMC Corporation. They have absolutely treated > us with respect and they are not "bad guys". We urge you to see this > as an opportunity for the LinuxCNC project and for all users and > contributors. Our new name clearly and concisely explains what the > software is. The renaming process will create positive buzz about the > project. > > Thank you for your continuing support of the LinuxCNC project. > > Yours, > The LinuxCNC Board of Directors: > Jeff Epler > Alex Joni > John Kasunich > Stephen Wille Padnos > Chris Radek > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Keep Your Developer Skills Current with LearnDevNow! > The most comprehensive online learning library for Microsoft developers > is just $99.99! Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL - plus HTML5, CSS3, MVC3, > Metro Style Apps, more. Free future releases when you subscribe now! > http://p.sf.net/sfu/learndevnow-d2d > _______________________________________________ > Emc-users mailing list > Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Try before you buy = See our experts in action! 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