On Thursday, January 3, 2002, at 06:01 AM, Niels Peter Strandberg wrote:
Why change the name from dbXML to the name Xindice. As one pointed out, It sound like gambling, will I win or loose. And to much "x" is already out there. dbXML sound like what it is, and it is a name widely known to the xml public.
Keep the name dbXML!
I wish we could have. I like the name dbXML a lot better too, even though I'm the person who came up with the name Xindice. You can blame Tom for the pronunciation though. :-)
Xindice is really a bad name, for this kind of product!!!!
The goal with it was to create what amounts to a brand. Xindice is completely unique. At the time I came up with it, Google returned less then two pages of completely unrelated results. This gives us a name that is exclusively ours on the net and any use of it is easy to track and gives users an easy way to find information, and other software that with a very high probability will be related to this project in some way. Yes we lose a little recognition in the short term, but that will change quickly because of the high visibility of the ASF overall. Also we haven't really done anything to get the name out yet. That will start to happen once we release a first Xindice build.
The dbXML name constantly confused people, especially with the XML:DB Initiative. We founded both(co-founded XML:DB), but our intention was never to confuse things. Changing the name to something completely unique removes any possibility for confusion with the XML:DB Initiative or the possible rebirth of the dbXML Group. The dbXML name also had collisions with some other products, including one named dbXML and written exactly the same way.
As for the gambling relationship ... well as long as we don't use that for our logo I think we'll be fine.
Could we have come up with a better name? Yes of course, but at the time a better one wasn't suggested. If I remember right we spent two weeks looking for a name with no new suggestions coming in before voting on one.
I certainly have no attachment to the name, it was just the best that was available. I guess we could change the name again if enough people want to complain, going back to dbXML isn't an option though. Personally I'd rather just focus on getting development of the next version ramped up.
Kill your darlings!
Niels Peter
Kimbro Staken XML Database Software, Consulting and Writing http://www.xmldatabases.org/
