Show HN: Songbird- a command line snippet manager
npmjs.com
npmjs.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songbird_(software)
Is the reason Firefox is called "Firefox" forgotten? It was "Phoenix", but the name was taken. So it was renamed Firebird. But _that_ name was taken too.
Always check someone else hasn't used your name first. Always.
The name "Songbird" was previously used by Mozilla, a large, well-known and fairly wealthy organization which is still around and has a world-famous product. It therefore probably has trademarks on the name. Debian, famously, had to maintain its own forks of Firefox and Thunderbird for many years because the Mozilla terms of use on the names and icons were incompatible with the Debian IP guidelines.
Mozilla itself, as I pointed out, had to change the name of what is now its flagship product _twice_ because other software companies used and owned the names: Phoenix is a brand of PC BIOS, Firebird is a database.
Mozilla _might_ have released the name as the product is dead, but it would be foolhardy to rely on this.
If the new project succeeds and prospers, then Mozilla will notice, and as Mozilla had the name first, the new project will have to change it. This is a pain and can be detrimental to awareness, community etc.
Songbird was a high-profile product at the time. As a user of Netscape and Mozilla products since 1996, I ran it myself for a while. (I decided it was way too bulky for a media player.) Thus I am surprised it has been so forgotten so quickly, as apparently have Mozilla's repeated forced name-changes.
I suppose I don't want to change the name just yet, will cross that bridge when we reach it :)
Thanks for your insightful and elaborate response though!
It was an attempt to make an open, cross-platform rival to iTunes, but you needed the Apple, MS etc. apps installed to get the codecs & authorise playback. At launch it couldn't directly rip or burn audio CDs.
They dropped Linux support, it was forked as Nightingale to keep Linux support, but both forks flopped and were discontinued. Streaming stuff like Spotify turned out to be more popular.
Personally I think it is partly what led to the rise of simple lightweight music players such as Foobar 2000, Rhythmbox, Pragha and so on. OTOH there are now so many of those that developer talent is spread very thinly, and we might all be better off if there were just 2 or 3 leading ones with more substantial teams behind them.
I was just trying to warn you of the risks of using a name that someone else has already used...