[indiana-discuss] Re: [indiana=discuss] Name of Distro?

[Shawn Walker]

On 20/06/07, Stephen Lau <stevel at sun.com> wrote:
> Sara Dornsife wrote:
> > Anil Gulecha wrote:
> >> On 6/20/07, Shawn Walker <binarycrusader at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>> On 20/06/07, Sara Dornsife <Sara.Dornsife at sun.com> wrote:
> >>> >
> >>> > >
> >>> > > Though I also like the point you're making too. Having a catchy
> >>> name is a
> >>> > > good thing for spreading awareness.
> >>> >
> >>> > Calling it OpenSolaris would be a good thing for building awareness of
> >>> > OpenSolaris :)
> >>>
> >>> But rather unfair because the community was told they couldn't name
> >>> their distribution that.
> >>>
> >>
> >> I would tend to agree with this. This is unfair to the Opensolaris
> >> distributions that are already available.
> >
> > How do we make both an OpenSolaris-named distribution (which is one of
> > the problems that we are trying to solve here - create what so many
> > people come to the site to get - OpenSolaris) and not be unfair at the
> > same time? Although that sounds like a sarcastic question, it is not.
> > It's the problem we need to fix with the naming.
>
> The overriding point of contention is the confusion as to what
> OpenSolaris is.  By naming the distribution the same as the community,
> we'd be overloading what "OpenSolaris" means.
>
> The only solution for that, that I can see, is to either:
> a) Change the name of the distro
> b) Change the name of the community
> c) Suffix the names (i.e.: everyone make a concerted effort to say
> "OpenSolaris Distribution" vs. "OpenSolaris Community")
>
> The powers that be seem to not like (a).  The community will almost
> certainly vote no on (b).  And (c) just seems to have potential for
> further confusion.  If we couldn't get the messaging straight to begin
> with, we'll undoubtedly fail at (c).
>
> So I'd like to hear from the people in favour of calling Indiana the
> "OpenSolaris Distribution".  If that *were* to happen, how would you
> denote the community?  And the projects?  How would you explain to the
> layperson that OpenSolaris Project WhizzyFoobar isn't in fact part of
> the "OpenSolaris Distribution"?

This is the heart of the matter put far better than I can.

Regardless of some people being annoyed by there not being a
distribution called OpenSolaris, I think that it is rather late in the
life of this community to start now.

Stephen also makes a good point. If you call the distribution
OpenSolaris, then automatically, by association, any project that is
on OpenSolaris.org will be expected to be part of it as well.

It will especially begin to be confusing if a new distribution called
"OpenSolaris" begins radically differing from Solaris. I believe there
are certain expectations people have from things that have "Solaris"
in their name.

-- 
"Less is only more where more is no good." --Frank Lloyd Wright

Shawn Walker, Software and Systems Analyst
binarycrusader at gmail.com - http://binarycrusader.blogspot.com/