SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
For the last few years, Microsoft has tried to separate the modern version of Internet Explorer from its legacy: a relatively slow, insecure browser saddled with proprietary features. Now Mark Hachman reports at PC World that as recently as a few weeks ago, members of the Internet Explorer development team debated renaming the browser, presumably in an effort to eliminate any distaste from the software's earliest days. According to one member of the Explorer Develop Group during an AMA on Reddit: "It's been suggested internally; I remember a particularly long email thread where numerous people were passionately debating it. Plenty of ideas get kicked around about how we can separate ourselves from negative perceptions that no longer reflect our product today," wrote Jonathon Sampson. "The discussion I recall seeing was a very recent one (just a few weeks ago). Who knows what the future holds :)"
(Score: 5, Insightful) by evilviper on Monday August 18 2014, @11:40PM
Actually, "Internet Explorer" is just about the perfect name. FOSS developers fail so miserably at naming, and should take a lesson from this.
If I was a clueless user and wanted to browse the INTERNET, what would I first think to use? "Mozilla," "Firefox," "Opera," or something else that has "Internet" right in the name?
"Photoshop" versus "GIMP" is just one more example. "Winamp" isn't perfect, but pretty good, compared with "XMMS" or "Audacious", and "iTunes" and "Windows Media Center" both hit it out of the park.
Forget the clueless users, even, and look at how you find software... How many times have you discovered that there was some application for task-X that you didn't know about, despite it being in the yum/dpkg list of your system?
When looking for an IRC client, I'm hardly going to expect "BitchX" is what I want. When looking for a new file manager, "Nautilus", "Konq" and "Dolphin" doesn't mean a damn thing to me... etc.
Sure, you could go for multi-million dollar ad campaigns to get your product's name out there (Firefox), or you could just damn-well name it properly in the first place, so someone looking for it, will find it...
A name should be descriptive, not obscure. Copyright-ability is not of any particular value.
Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 19 2014, @01:37AM
It's only "perfect" if you don't acknowledge that there was another "Explorer" before that one (and that that app still exists).
...and that humans tend to shorten the names of everything.
...then there are the folks that call it "IE". Huh? Obvious?
FOSS developers fail so miserably at naming[...]"Photoshop" versus "GIMP"
Graphical Image Manipulation Package. So cryptic. /sarc
See "shorten the names", above.
See "IE", above.
"Winamp"
Are you kidding? That's supposed to be obvious?
mplayer beats that.
A name I like is ogle.
Audio players are an even easier category: songbird, mpg123, atunes.
Copyright-ability is not of any particular value
Google-ability, however, is.
Windows? Word? Office? Money? .NET? WTF? See "shorten the names", above.
When Windoze gets a package manager, maybe finding Windoze-compatible apps will be easy.
Until then, FOSS OSes win at finding new software.
...and it's so freaking difficult to go to the forum for your distro and ask
"What do you guys use for ________?".
-- gewg_
(Score: 3, Insightful) by frojack on Tuesday August 19 2014, @03:09AM
Oh come on, nobody is that clueless anymore. Go ask your grandmother. Even SHE knows the name of more than one browser. She also has learned the difference between a name and a function, she can buy a Ford or a Honda, and is not limited to buying a something with the word "car" in its name SmartCar.
I'm always astounded how many people come posting how everyone in the world is dumber then hell, while always excluding themselves from that group.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by evilviper on Tuesday August 19 2014, @06:03AM
If you'd read HALFWAY through my post, you'd see I didn't exclude myself at all.
If you can't be bothered to read HALFWAY through a comment, you have nothing to offer in response, and I'm sure not going to be bothered to read anything you have to say.
Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.
(Score: 2) by Common Joe on Tuesday August 19 2014, @03:08PM
You should speak to my mother-in-law. She will change your mind. You'd understand what I mean after a few minutes, but it's most frustrating when you work with her one-on-one for several hours, write everything down for her, and within two weeks she still has trouble surfing on the Internet.
In short, those people still exist. And more on topic, evilviper was right on target. I'd love to find more programs in Linux Mint, but most names suck and I can't find jack. I've had to find most of my programs through random surfing on the Internet, Soylent News, and (before SN) Slashdot.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Adamsjas on Tuesday August 19 2014, @03:12AM
"A name should be descriptive, not obscure. "
Says they guy posting as Evilviper.
(Score: 1) by evilviper on Tuesday August 19 2014, @06:08AM
Picked it on a whim 20 years ago, and it just wasn't practical to start over. It works as well as any, so I'm hardly motivated.
Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Tuesday August 19 2014, @02:02PM
soooo, you're saying you're neither evil or viper then? Just want to confirm things.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 1) by Refugee from beyond on Tuesday August 19 2014, @07:04AM
So, what do you do when you have more than 1 browser? Hundred different programs named "Internet Explorers" isn't going to help people.
Instantly better soylentnews: replace background on article and comment titles with #973131.
(Score: 2) by evilviper on Tuesday August 19 2014, @05:36PM
You can do all kinds of variations with the words Internet, Web, etc. And "Explorer" isn't needed at all... most any other word will do just fine.
Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.
(Score: 1) by Refugee from beyond on Tuesday August 19 2014, @07:33PM
I'd like to see how fast this devolves into “[Vendor]'s browser” in the wild…
Instantly better soylentnews: replace background on article and comment titles with #973131.
(Score: 2) by evilviper on Wednesday August 20 2014, @12:28AM
"browser" is a TERRIBLE name. You can "browse" ANYTHING. Only techies would associate a browser with internet/web/youtube/facebook.
"Internet" or "Web" is good, and I'm sure I could come up with more if I was so motivated.
Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.
(Score: 1) by Refugee from beyond on Wednesday August 20 2014, @07:39AM
Doesn't matter. I was talking about people who will use those browsers.
Instantly better soylentnews: replace background on article and comment titles with #973131.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Tuesday August 19 2014, @09:26PM
Well, the menu item to start Firefox in my Linux distro is "Firefox Web Browser". So where's the problem, again?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by evilviper on Wednesday August 20 2014, @12:26AM
That helps, but it doesn't show-up that way in a yum or dpkg/apt search, or any other way you'd look for and access it.
Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.