[tdf-discuss] [GENERAL] New name

Hi Mirek, all,

Mirek Mazel wrote:
> Hi everyone,
> I'm really excited about the project, but I'm a bit concerned about the
> name. What concerns me is that one can't tell how to pronounce the name.
> Some pronounce it "librehoffice", some (including me) "leeberoffice", some
> may even pronounce it as "libberoffice".

I don't think that pronouncation is such an important topic. 
You may say "kouka-koula" or "koka-kola" or anything else, mostly depending on your mother language.

We can advise people intested in "right" pronounciation about the way we use it (by the way, I 
pronounce "libre" just like in French, as I learned some French in school), but people will read 
and pronounce it in the way they are used to.

It's not as hard to pronounce as OpenOffice.org

> I'd really like to take this opportunity (as LibreOffice is not yet widely
> known) to really get the name right -- I mean, for most software, this
> opportunity tends to come only once. I know that the domain name has been
> already bought, sure, but it's vital for software to have a good name. [...]
> Another thing that always bothered me with the "OpenOffice.org" trademark
> and now applies to the "LibreOffice" trademark too, is that, when you first
> hear about it, it sounds like an Office knock-off (in the same way that
> "Adidos" sounds like a cheap copy of "Adidas"), [...]
> Firefox and Chrome didn't need to use the word "Internet" within their names
> to be successful, and neither do office suites need to use the word "Office"
> in their names.

Naming is really important - nobody will deny this. 
Large companies spend millions of dollars on researching for the right name and promoting it.
We can't  - at least at the moment ;-) 

Our name should tell people about the content, as this is marketing without additional costs.
I don't have a problem with "Office".

One more point is about a bit of consitency with OpenOffice.org.
I personally correlate "libre" with "open", so it's not so hard to see the connection.

> What do you think? Should we brainstorm names and vote on the best one, or
> is it too late or too complicated to change the name now?

It is complicated, but not impossible to change the name.

But any name should not be occupied by anything else (product name, website etc).
It should transport the goals of our community and product at the first sight (or at least at the 
second).

And even if some names could be found out, being able to convince marketing and UX experts, 
language independent and pronouncable in any language, there stays a major problem:

At the time we'll decide about the name, websites will be registered by others, trademarks filed 
and so on.

Even if I mislike closed door decisions, this is probably not a topic to be discussed on an open 
list.

And I like the name!

Best regards

Bernhard




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