On Wed, Nov 30, 2005 at 02:13:13PM -0500, Kralidis,Tom [Burlington] wrote: > >Let's say we get them to change Enterprise to something else, i.e. > >"MapServer <some_animal>" and "MapServer Cheetah" (change the animal > >names to anything as long as it's nice distinctive names)... the idea I > > >think is to have something similar to Mozilla Firefox vs Mozilla > >Thunderbird, do you (not just you, but the community as a whole) still > >see a problem with something like that? > > Right, but Mozilla is still called Mozilla. <rant>Call anything other > than MapServer whatever you want, but keep MapServer named MapServer > </rant>
I agree that MapServer should keep it's name; there's no need to confuse the issue by using the same (MapServer) moniker for separate products that don't share a common heritage. Importantly, this extends to the foundation name as well; I believe a neutral name that can act as an umbrella for related projects would be much more beneficial than the current title. As well as conforming to the Apache/Mozilla model that is so successful it would solve our current naming dilemma. Products could be called <Apache> Mapserver, <Apache> MapGuide, <Apache> GDAL, <Apache> PostGIS etc (substitute <Apache> for the umbrella name). I can't really see the name MapServer PostGIS working, however natural a bedfellow software like PostGIS might be. Being able to go to www.apache.org or www.mozilla.org and know you're at the home of a great family of related software is a valuable thing. The new foundation can be that place for open source online (and perhaps desktop) GIS, but only with the right name. I feel a name with a broad, product neutral geospatial connection would be the right way to go. I notice that www.atlas.org isn't currently taken ;) Apologies if I'm not treading new ground here. Kind regards, Homme Zwaagstra
