SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
(Emphasis in original. --Ed.)
GIMP is a longstanding project, first announced in November 1995. The name was originally an acronym for General Image Manipulation Program but this was changed to GNU Image Manipulation Program.
The new fork springs from a discussion on Gitlab, where the source code is hosted. The discussion has been hidden but is available on web archives here. A topic titled "Consider renaming GIMP to a less offensive name," opened by developer Christopher Davis, stated:
I'd like to propose renaming GIMP, due to the baggage behind the name. The most modern and often used version of the word "gimp" is an ableist insult. This is also the colloquial usage of the word. In addition to the pain of the definition, there's also the marketability issue. Acronyms are difficult to remember, and they end up pronounced instead of read as their parts. "GIMP" does not give a hint towards the function of the app, and it's hard to market something that's either used as an insult or a sex reference.
[...] The subject of the suitability of the name is not new, and is enshrined in the official 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 ... on top of that, we feel that in the long run, sterilization of language will do more harm than good. ... 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.
The Glimpse project is therefore entirely within the spirit of open source. "We believe free software should be accessible to everyone, and in this case a re-brand is both a desirable and very straightforward fix that could attract a whole new generation of users and contributors," says the About page.
Is now the time to accept that, to get GIMP into the mainstream, it needs a rename?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by PiMuNu on Saturday August 31 2019, @05:32AM (9 children)
This comment was buried in a thread, but given the current flavour of discussion I thought it was worth reposting at the top level.
> Is "GIMP" really that problematic of a word?
Yes, it is a terrible problem. It makes the product sound like it was written by 14 year old boys snickering in a corner. It makes the product un-marketable.
But more significant:
> "GIMP" does not give a hint towards the function of the app
You can get away with that if you have significant market share, but GIMP does not. It is a niche product fighting photoshop (which, I note, does pretty much what it says on the tin).
(Score: 5, Touché) by maxwell demon on Saturday August 31 2019, @06:45AM
It allows you to buy photos?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 31 2019, @07:11AM (1 child)
so maybe it was written by snickering 14 year old boys.
what's the problem?
"git" seems to work fairly well.
microsoft bought github and didn't worry about investors reading "git" in their yearly report.
it's self-deprecation.
"here, I have this tool to solve your image problems. it's so bad it's gimp."
it's insulting.
it's whatever.
why don't you accept that the purpose of the original developers was not to conquer the world, but to have something that worked for them?
they are being nice and allowing you to use it, but they're not doing this for the money.
it's open source.
apparently someone decided to actually use the open source aspect to generate a different project with a more respectable name.
good luck to them, but I don't see why any of the currently happy users/developers of GIMP should care.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Monday September 02 2019, @07:33AM
The market for git is computer geeks. The market for photoshop is, at the high end, arts students and journalists. At the low end, mum and dad. They are completely different markets.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 31 2019, @07:14AM
Try setting your Threshold/Breakthrough to -1/-1
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Mer on Saturday August 31 2019, @07:46AM (2 children)
I disagree with the idea that simply naming the program GIMP is a show of immaturity akin to a snickering 14 years old.
The joke isn't pushed further than would make it funny, the logo isn't a gimp hood, and there's no joking abut it anywhere in the program.
But sure, dismiss anything with remotely sexual connotations because that's immature, wait that's just "think of the children" but aimed to raise a reaction from adults who shouldn't care. It's a buzzword, if anything the one being immature is the one raising a tantrum over the name of a piece of free software.
Keep pushing those ideas and witness more and more awkward people ashamed of sex until we start calling panties unmentionables again.
Shut up!, he explained.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 31 2019, @07:55AM
i like "unmentionables".
sounds way more offensive than panties.
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Sunday September 01 2019, @12:15AM
The trouble is that the business (mis)managers THINK that's the case; result - "No. Buy photoshop instead".
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 2) by srobert on Saturday August 31 2019, @04:29PM
There was a tiling window manager named scrotwm. It was like xmonad but was written in C. It's a perfectly good tiling window manager but the author was in juvenile humor mode when he named it. It got rebranded later as spectrwm, but I think maybe it wasn't widely used earlier only because of its name.
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Saturday August 31 2019, @10:10PM
Or maybe (this is going to blow your mind) the creators didn't know gimp was an offensive word?
The definition since 1660:
gimp (countable and uncountable, plural gimps)
A narrow ornamental fabric or braid of silk, wool, or cotton, often stiffened with metallic wire or coarse cord running through it, used as trimming for dresses, curtains, furniture, etc. Also guimpe.
Any coarse or reinforced thread, such as a glazed thread employed in lacemaking to outline designs, or silk thread used as a fishing leader, protected from the bite of fish by a wrapping of fine wire.
The plastic cord used in the plaiting and knotting craft Scoubidou (lanyard making); or, the process itself.
The definition in the US since 1920:
gimp (plural gimps)
(informal) A person who is lame due to a crippling of the legs or feet.
(informal) A crippled leg.
(informal) A limp or a limping gait.
(slang, derogatory) A name-calling word, generally for a person who is perceived to be inept, deficient or peculiar
(BDSM) A sexual submissive, almost always male, dressed generally in a black leather suit. See Gimp (sadomasochism) in Wikipedia.
(video games, slang, derogatory) A character or ability that is underpowered.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!