Re: [Evolution-hackers] branding

[Rodney Dawes <dobey ximian com>]

On M�, 2004-03-31 at 14:01 -0500, William Jon McCann wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I hope this isn't too controversial...
> 
> Currently, evolution uses a fair amount of product branding.  By this I 
> mean that "Ximian Evolution" is used as are Ximian logos and trademarks.
> 
> Given that Evolution is targeting inclusion in GNOME desktop would it be 
> appropriate to try to remove some of this for a default GNOME build? 
> Perhaps a configure option could turn on branding (--enable-branding)?

Ugh. No. More configure options is something we don't need, especially
for something that is so user-visible.

> Changes might include:
>   - "Ximian Evolution" -> "Evolution"
>   - Ximian about dialog -> GNOMEish about dialog
>   - Removing the advertisement for Connector in the help file
>   - changing ximian.com URLs to gnome.org
> 
> This has two benefits in my view.  First, it keeps GNOME brand-free. 
> Second, it makes the branding more meaningful when it is only included 
> in an Official Novell/Ximian build.

The use of "Ximian Evolution" is a marketing-driven decision. The fact
is, that most users associate "Ximian" with the Evolution product
itself. Many of the URLs will probably be changed to direct to the
gnome.org project page at some point anyway. However, the product is
"Ximian Evolution" and that is the protected name. Branding is, and
always will be a part of how users associate applications with what
they want to do. The only Ximian "logo" that I can see in Evolution,
is in fact, in the About Box, where the pill is at the bottom. And,
given the number of names in the about dialog, it probably doesn't
make sense to change it to the current gnome about box, which is,
quite frankly, much less useful for displaying the names of the
contributors. We randomize the contributor list each time we create
the dialog, and scroll the names.

In actuality, the product is, in fact, "Ximian Evolution". I think we
should leave it as-is, and, if the about box or some other issue,
becomes problematic for inclusion in the gnome release, fix the issues
as they come up, as they should only be small harmless issues.

-- dobey

(This is only my opinion, not the decision of marketing)