2011/7/9 Pavel Janík <[email protected]>: >> Why? Out of the folk on the OOo forum who expressed an opinion to me, no one >> liked it. It was a perpetual reminder that the product couldn't be called >> what they really wanted it to be called: OpenOffice. I greatly prefer Apache >> OpenOffice to Apache OpenOffice.org. > > The product and the project WAS OpenOffice.org. If we want to change it, then > why not directly Apache Office? > --
Or if everyone likes the ".org" we could call it "(Apache.org OpenOffice.org).org" But seriously, the ".org" was added to make the name unique. It also occurred during the .com bubble when making your product sound internetty would make your stock price quadruple over night. So we ended up with a lot of silly names back then. Today, however, the original reason for adding the ".org" no longer exists. And instead of sounding cool, it sounds very retro, so very 2001. On the other hand, we have a generation of pedants who enjoy correcting users who almost always just call the product "OpenOffice", oblivious any attempts to enlighten them about how some Dutch company they never heard of was also called OpenOffice. So regardless of what we do, users will continue calling the product "OpenOffice". You can reading the Apache requirements for product branding and naming here: http://www.apache.org/foundation/marks/pmcs.html#naming Quoting from there: "The primary branding for any project or product name must be in the form of 'Apache Foo'. This ensures that the project or product is associated with the ASF and the project in the minds of our users. The first and most prominent reference to a project or product on each page must use the 'Apache Foo' form of its name. Other references may use either 'Apache Foo' or 'Foo' as appropriate for the subject matter." So the branding will need to include "Apache". It seems the logical choices are either: "Apache OpenOffice.org" or "Apache OpenOffice" Personally, I think the first name is ponderous and ugly. -Rob > Pavel Janík > > > >
