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Comment by GiorgioG | Hacker News Reader

I actually did read the thread thank you very much. My point is people want to bitch about a trivial thing (yes it is my opinion that this is a trivial matter.) How much effort and time are you willing to spend on such a minor thing as a 4 character string? I predict someone will fork it, and in a year's time it'll be abandoned and not kept up to date because they'll simply move onto the next trivial matter which offends you folks.

Frankly, few will use your fork anyway because it provides zero value vs the established name/brand.

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So, you read the issue. What is it you fail to grasp about the conversation "I think, rather than buying Photoshop, you should use this software." "We can't use software with a name like that."

That's a conversation I've had, in real life, with a professor and a professional photographer.

Literally, the only thing holding them back was the name.

How is that zero value?!

From the GIMP FAQ:

"I don’t like the name GIMP. Will you change it? With all due respect, no.

We’ve been using the name GIMP for more than 20 years and it’s widely known.

The name was originally (and remains) an acronym; although the word “gimp” can be used offensively in some cultures, that is not our intent.

On top of that, we feel that in the long run, sterilization of language will do more harm than good. GIMP has been quite popular for a long time in search engine results compared to the use of the word “gimp”. So we think we are on the right track to make a positive change and make “gimp” something people actually feel good about. Especially if we add all the features we’ve been meaning to implement and fix the user interface.

Finally, if you still have strong feelings about the name “GIMP”, you should feel free to promote the use of the long form GNU Image Manipulation Program or maintain your own releases of the software under a different name."

So instead of using the name "GIMP" with your easily-offended professor and photographer, use the name "GNU Image Manipulation Program" and move on with your life. Or let them spend their hard earned cash propping up Adobe's stock price. In the end, the developers of GIMP, built it for themselves. If others don't like the app for whatever reason, name included - there are plenty of other alternatives.

I'm going to jump in and say this.

Let's be real here. You can't even make a circle in GIMP without jumping through various hoops. Right now, the hurdle for those professionals is just the name, but wait until you see when they actually try using the tools. They'll happily pay for Photoshop once they realize that what they wanted after all was just a free Photoshop. This is quite a different angle I am arguing from, but it's my pragmatic side. I believe GIMP should maintain it's current userbase that was earned through over 20 years of hard work under their current name, instead of chasing customers that will unlikely appreciate their project anyway.

This. I’ve used Photoshop since v4. Every time I try to use the latest version of GIMP I run away and happily pay for Photoshop because I choose not spend time to learn how to use GIMP (or Pixelmator on Mac.)

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