Re: [Gimp-developer] Gimp in private schools and educational institutions

[Elle Stone <ellestone ninedegreesbelow com>]

On 04/15/2015 08:19 AM, Joao S. O. Bueno wrote:
> On 15 April 2015 at 05:40, Simon Budig <simon budig de> wrote:

> > No. It would only play into the hands we already have with fake
> > packagers who sell Gimp without mentioning the Gimp brand name and
> > without mentioning that Gimp is available for free as well.
>
>
> Indeed -
> Mr. Bagot -
> I think the best approach you have is write the Software name in full
> in all possible instances
> (e-mails, documents, letters, etc...) - just write "GNU Image
> Manipulation Program" - and leave
> the acronym as if it did not exist in all written documents.
>
> In my experience, name connotations are a matter os perception, and
> many times it just hit
> us in certain contexts - and may not bother our neighbors at all. For
> example, it was only when phrasing this
> paragraph I stopped to think about the sound of your last name would
> have in my native language, and the possible
> linked connotations - but just because I forced myself to think into
> it in this context. Just as I don expect a full
> 400 million Spanish speakers to think of me as a "good" person.

Exactly. Software developers shouldn't be required to choose names that 
are free of all unwanted connotations in all languages, especially given 
that new unwanted connotations spring up just as fast as old unwanted 
connotations fade away.

Connotations are in people's mind, not in actual words. I am a native 
English speaker, but I didn't "hear" the unwanted connotations in the 
word GIMP until a couple of friends snickered, which reflects rather 
more badly on their minds than it does on the name "GIMP".

Best,
Elle