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Applications with silly names that dont do what you think they do
Thu, 02/08/2007 - 23:05 — admin
What is with calling applications stupid names like "helix player" ?
Infact, helix-player is a replacement for the realvideo/realaudio application in debian testing however it does not play the .ram feeds which is exactly what you would use RealPlayer for? What's the point of replacing it with a newer player only to find it doesnt play what you wanted it for?
I think theres some wisdom and foresight in Microsoft calling their internet browser "Internet Explorer", people _dont care_ what the fuck it is called, infact complex obfuscated names like "Helix player" definately has a negative effect on the adoption of that application.
Example..
"ok so now just start up the internet explorer"
"ok no worries"
Or.
"ok now just launch the helix player.. oh.. it doesnt.. you cant find it?.. look under applications.. oh its not registering with firefox?"
"fire what? whats helix? im not a scientist i just want to browse the internet"
I think if more opensource weenies got out from behind their desks and visited some RealPeople[tm] they would discover that what they think is 'really cool' is a great hinderance
This is far more important
This is far more important than people realize. You should develop for your users not for yourself, if other people can't quickly and easily figure out how to use your app (no matter how amazing it is), they will just go somewhere else.
Lol. This is a functional
Lol. This is a functional deficiency of Linux? lol, what an ass.
Here forth are suggested
Here forth are suggested program names:
ClamChowder - Terminal app
Ding-A-Ling-A-Ling - Alternate PIM
Time Scraper - Another PIM
Glass Jaw - System Monitor
Cheese Puff - Er, Linux distro. Version 4.10 "Cheddar".
Milk - Cheese Puff distro beta 5.04.
Zeus - Process watching app
Rottweiler - Internet Security
Deucewad - Gaming file editor!
Daily Llama - tooltip
Splendid - Basic text editor in terminal.
Giggles - bug report tool
Dingbat - Font
Watershed - RAID software!
Dingleberry - Blackberry PIM software.
Dwangledooper - widget for holding the mouse
(The above is released under the GPL.)
Stupid names are generic in
Stupid names are generic in linux;
yabb - Yet and other bla bla, yast
more, less
ls, cd, rm
amaroK ! Wow there is a K in it.
nano, pico
Um, more, less, cd were
Um, more, less, cd were available in DOS (& windows). rm is 'remove'. ls is 'list'. They are mnemonics.
More and less are kind of self explanatory in a way. But Linux apps do have some obscure names. This phenomenon is not just a Linux one though. What about these (primarily) windows programs?
Adobe Acrobat, Excel, Nero, uTorrent, LimeWire, Kazaa, Visio (?), PowerPoint, to name a few. Name is meaningless as to the purpose of the program.
Or what about poxy company/product names, Aviva, Aventra, Avensis, Eventra, Avita, Ateva, Aptiva, Captiva, Ativa, Aventis, Adventra (no, I'm not making these up either!, well maybe one or two, but most are real!). Or, instead of putting a 'g' before every app, like gphone, gnash, gnone, gnumeric, gnasshole, put an 'i'? iPhone, iMac, iTeddy, etc, again, many real life examples, which there are more I cant think of.
Also, don't forgot your Three. Word. Motto.
Achieve, Inspire, Invent.
Just a little nit... Nero
Just a little nit...
Nero burns. Not a stupid name.
PowerPoint is not really stupid either... makes it easier to get your point across.
And "uTorrent" is not the name of the app you're talking about. It's μTorrent, μ being a symbol for "micro." If you know how to read it, the name makes perfect sense. :)
But imagine if the iPhone
But imagine if the iPhone was called Floppingsod Would that sell?? =D
Probably, if it was from
Probably, if it was from Apple. They did sell Macintoshs. Everyone around here seems to have "Blackberry's". It was months after before I found out it was a phone, a specific phone, and not a type of phone or protocol or set up! I've still never worked out WHY it's called Blackberry, but everyone seems to know that Blackberry is a phone.
Pidgin for an IM client, Thunderbird for an e-mail client and Amarok are no more osbcure or silly than Google for a serach engine, Yahoo, facebook or Blackberry. It just goes a bit to far when you choose a name to be 'clever' with using reduntant/recursive acronyms.
but I do pine for the old days when software was simply named, and didn't have to sound pretentious or edgy or faux quirky.
Eek, I kind of went offtopic
Eek, I kind of went offtopic there..
P.s. I think you are pragmatic individual?
I like simplcity in naming.
I like simplcity in naming. I hate names which a company had to pay a consultant to come up with. Just sounds so wanky.
I think there may be a
I think there may be a reason behind a lot of names...
Palm makes sense as a name because the devices are intended to be used by the hands. =)
Microsoft makes sense because its dealing with software using small technology.
Windows makes sense, I guess, because the GUI is using windows.
Linux's respective software I think definitely makes less sense (as said before, Pidgin, Thunderbird). But Linux has different... goals. Linux is community driven, and a hobby for thousands. Yet I would expect a hobby of which people are asking, "Can this make a successful wedge into the corporate, capital market on desktops and servers?" sport names of which the likes are a little more public-relations friendly. I mean, I think it would be in Linux's better interest to have more professional sounding names.
I get the feeling that Linux was a tool for professionals but adopted by thousands of non-professionals (in the sense of not being paid computer programmers, mind you =P). I am REALLY curious about WHY Linux is what it is today and what about it that draws such a crowd.
My 2 cents..
But then you look at Adobe
But then you look at Adobe Acrobat, Excel, Viso, Blackberry, Google, Yahoo,even Quake. and look at cars, Dodge, Holden, Falcon, Corolla, Pulsar, Canyonero... By the way, Pidgeons were used as messengers, so there is a connection there.
Linux was adopted by 'non professionals' from day 0. Besides one of the GOOD things about Linux, is its not a 'corporate' OS (whatever that is), and I strongly reject any efforts to make it so. It's a tool for computer users, more so than Windows is. I quite like the fact that I run an OS at home that doesn't try to put 'professionalism' on me. I have to deal with that garbage at work, I don't want it for my own personal computing needs.
I also reject the idea that Linux must capture the biggest market share possible. It simply exists outside the corporate sphere and doesn't follow those paradigms. I argue that Linux doesn't, and shouldn't try to cater for 'everyone', but should at least cater for its natural target audience, ie, people who want to use Linux because of what it is. If that initially is not >50% of computer users, I dont think it matters.
"I argue that Linux doesn't,
"I argue that Linux doesn't, and shouldn't try to cater for 'everyone', but should at least cater for its natural target audience, ie, people who want to use Linux because of what it is."
Aren't we, again, outside the parameters of the discussion intended on this site?
real player released a linux
real player released a linux build, why dont you try that instead of complaining that an alternative doesnt work. Or better yet just ask for your money back :)
A brand name is necessary in
A brand name is necessary in an applications name to avert confusion, as there can be many applications for the same purpose. That's where the idea of branding originated. Whose cattle are you milking anyway? However, the purpose of the application cannot be forgotten. Am I supposed to milk or slaughter these cattle?
Seriously. I'm pissed off by fumbles like Transmission not being called a BitTorrent client in the initial Hardy Heron release, and when Sound Juicer gets called Audio CD Extractor. The problem is that people within some projects are becoming so focused on generic descriptors to add simplicity that they forget that branding also has a purpose.
Ah this isn't even that big
Ah this isn't even that big of an issue, most of the front end apps are fairly tame... Besides humans are pretty good at matching abstract names to ideas and themes... We do it every day... Take the name john, or bob, in reality they have no meaning... or products like Klinex, Krapper, or Cat... They have nothing to do with the products they are associated with, and yet now they define the markets that they are in... we even use some of them in every day speech to describe similar items... (crap and tissue)
Lousy post... simply because
Lousy post... simply because it is such a very incredibly narrow view without much research or decent examples given.
There may be some apps that could be renamed to make things easier for the MS Windows user, but I could say the same thing for any amount of apps made for Windows in relation to a Linux user ... or about Mac in relation to a Windows user etc.. etc...
How about:
- ACDsee (who would guess from the name that its a Photo Editor?)
- Adobe Acrobat Professional (What?? A native dwelling and a professional acrobat?)
- Edonkey, Limewire ... (who would think they were Peer-to-peer apps?)
Now there are many Windows apps that are named well and in a helpful manner, but so are there many that are named obscurely. Many Linux apps are named cryptically, especially ones that have not become very popular, but in time names change and generally become better. :)
So you may have a point, but its a lousy presentation of your point and the point itself is ridiculously minute.
That is the least of the
That is the least of the obscure names! Trawl through freshmeat.net to see some REALLY obscure names.
This is one of my constant
This is one of my constant complaints, along with the Linux community's otherwise laudable reluctance to leave out anyone's work. So you do an install, and you get a half-dozen word processors, almost none of which actually says what it does (I'm looking at you, Jed, Ted, Joe, Eddie, Maxwell, Diakonos, not to mention ee, emacs and pico.)
With a Windows installation, you get one text editor called Notepad (copyright 1873) and one lightweight word processor called WordPad. You get a media player called Windows Media Player, a web browser called Internet Explorer, a graphics program called Paint and a calculator called Calculator. I don't know what happened with Outlook Express, but everyone drops a clanger once in a while.
To make Linux fully competitive with Windows, you're going after a market that sees computers as a necessary evil if they want to surf the web, email the grandkids, put together the church bulletin. Microsoft captures 95 percent of the market just doing that.
"With a Windows
"With a Windows installation, you get one text editor called Notepad (copyright 1873) and one lightweight word processor called WordPad. You get a media player called Windows Media Player, a web browser called Internet Explorer, a graphics program called Paint and a calculator called Calculator. I don't know what happened with Outlook Express, but everyone drops a clanger once in a while."
ubuntu comes with all that:
gedit - text editor (copyright, who cares?)
openoffice - office suite
(seperate install) abiword - lightweight word processot
rythembox - media player
calculator - a calculator
gimp - advanced image editor (similar to photoshop)
evolution - email client, calendar, a few other things (better than outlook express, more like outlook)
firefox - browser
"Gimp" as a name only makes
"Gimp" as a name only makes sense if you know what it stands for. Otherwise it's just kind of offensive.
I didn'not understand why to
I didn'not understand why to worry about program names of linux and windows. what is the matter? Has nobody told you that Linux is a cooperative work? And just because has many projects, they need to have diferent names (or imagine the mess that would install -- and linux is a organized system -- in oposite what another s.o that many people knows better than me).
For Linux the programs follow Darwins Law, the better lives and not better, or obsolete ones, they die. And other S.O, what chance you have to see any improvement in their programs (none... of course... except that as years pass by they get much and much fatter )...
At last, sorry about my bad english.
Kidding? Are you (with all
Kidding?
Are you (with all respect) kidding?
gedit : "okey, it has "edit" so I am sure it can be use for some "editing", maybe for the g spot?"
openoffice : My favorite:
"openoffice cacl" : "ah, this must be the calculator"
"openoffice base": "oh, this must be the application to start to, it says "base" like basic".
"openoffice Impress": " "oh, I am sure this is for printing or something like that, or should it be for fotoblog "impress my friends" ".
(seperate install) abiword - lightweight word processor :"abi word could not be found"
rythembox - media player : "Umm, rythem !, like rhythm!, got it!, it is for karoeke right?"
calculator - a calculator : WINNERR!!!!
gimp - advanced image editor (similar to photoshop) : "GIIIMMMP... umm, sound kinda to eat, OH GOT THAT!, G IMAGE PROCESSOR , right!, so obvious!!! (the g must be again for gspot)"
evolution - email client: "I don't' believe in evolutions, i am a creationist, i don't understand why this has to be in my computer!".
firefox - browser: ok, I let it pass, I love firefox, but comeon! "Oh 'fire'---'fox', this must be the firewall!!!, it peeh away every threat!" :-D
HUh...what? o_O OKay, I
HUh...what? o_O OKay, I stopped reading here, what the f***? WHy the hell did you use OpenOffice in your example for bad names when Microsoft Office has just as many bad names? :| How would Access make it obvious its for database usage, and how is powerpoint any different from 'impress'? o_O Gah!
Stop whining about bad names when these so called 'bad names' are in all operating systems. o_O Linux, BSD, WIndows, and Mac! D:
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF....
And for the guy who complained about Totem players, most of the video, and other players do appear in the, 'multimedia,' when you install them to your package manager, I will admit Windows Media Player makes it obvious that its for playing music, and videos, but damn. Bickering about names when it comes to good software is effing pointless :/
Just my HUMBLE OPINION
Ok... lets look at
Ok... lets look at this...
Tell me how you get from "FireFox" to "software for looking at web pages"...
MS nailed it with Internet Explorer.
Going back a few years..
Tin, Balsa, Pico, etc. Really... what were they thinking?
I shouldn't have to memorize abstract program names... I should be able to call them by function. If I type "email" I should get whatever email client is installed as my default.
Why do you think computer people get the reputation... Ever heard two of them discussing the virtues of Oprah vs Firefox in a coffee shop? That's why.
MS nailed it with internet
MS nailed it with internet explorer??????????????
come on... don't you know that the term internet refers to the actual network of computers (hardware). Http is only of of the many protocols on the internet. I think internet explorer is a name that is way to general to say that they nailed it. Internet explorer could mean anything. If I wouldn't know what it is, I would probably guess it's a port scanner. wwwexplorer or httpexplorer (though the browser also supports other protocols) would have been much more precise.
What a stupid argument. "If
What a stupid argument.
"If I wouldn't know what it is, I would probably guess it's a port scanner."
Seriously?
Well, maybe you would, but the average consumer wouldn't. From its inception, the Internet Explorer name has meant, to consumers, "The way that I get onto that Internet thing that everyone is talking about." And the Internet, to most consumers, is http. Plain and simple.
The fact that most consumers
The fact that most consumers think 'the internet' is equivalent to 'viewing web pages' doesn't make it so. I agree with some of the posts that names are too cryptic. However, I'm against making names more simple than they need to be. It's a pity people use 'the internet' all the time while they actually mean the world wide web.
>>And the Internet, to most consumers, is http. Plain and simple.
You are definitely right about that. But what is your solution to this, having two definitions? One for people that don't know what they're talking about and one for people that do? This will only make things more complicated. Let's just stick to the definition, and educate those that are using the word 'internet' incorrectly. It is not that complicated, I can explain this to a 4 year old.
And in this line of reasoning: yes, I do think that 'Internet Explorer' is a more ambiguous name then 'WWW Explorer'
"The fact that most
"The fact that most consumers think 'the internet' is equivalent to 'viewing web pages' doesn't make it so."
Yes, it does, if we're talking about how to get more people to use Linux. If they understand "Internet" to mean "Web pages," and if you want to reach them, then that's what you go with. Retraining your entire consumer base is not something computer guys want to take on.
There's a separate argument about whether increasing the market share should be a goal of Linux, or even whether it's a good idea. But if you ask why Linux is not scoring market share against Windows, the impenetrability of its naming convention is, IMHO, a prominent reason.
Yes! This is one of the
Yes! This is one of the major reasons Linux is not ready for the masses. Who could possibly know that 'cups' is to do with printing?
Another thing is codecs! Totem is a media player but how would you know that by the name 'totem'? The fact that it doesn't come with codecs on my distrib is just downright stupid. As a minimum a mediaplayer should be able to play mp3 files and DVD's straight away!
Forza
"As a minimum a mediaplayer
"As a minimum a mediaplayer should be able to play mp3 files and DVD's straight away!"
i find that rather funny because a fesh install of windows doesn't let you play DVDs in windows media player. You pretty much can't without paying. Or you could just install VLC media player on windows and it works (oh yeah, VLC is open source...)
"Who could possibly know that 'cups' is to do with printing?"
who cares? you dont need to use it in newer distros like ubuntu or debian
What kind of "fesh" install
What kind of "fesh" install of Windows are you talking about? On both of my (cheap) Windows laptops, one running XP and one running Vista, I've been able to play DVDs straight out of the box, no payment required.
Thats exactly the kind of
Thats exactly the kind of "hide everything from the user" mentality that made me switch away from Windows. In the MS world, the user is not supposed to care, or even see, beneath the hood of the system. Is Linux heading that way?
That can easily be
That can easily be solved.
Just use a shell that supports "guessable" names instead of their real binary names.
I am writing my ruby shell. With "print some_document" you simply print the document.
Behind it, it is doing the stuff to print the docu.
"burn cd foo.iso"
will burn a cd
yeh thats it, thats why
yeh thats it, thats why microsoft had a great monopoly by just causing their browser "internet explorer" theres a lot of psychology behind this...
In ubuntu most apps in the
In ubuntu most apps in the menu are named like this
eg totem is named "Movie player" Firefox is named "Firefox Web Browser". but there are other apps that aren't so i get your point (mostly Kubuntu apps)
comment from a friend on the
comment from a friend on the matter
"oh, you open sourced the realplayer as helix player.. except all the bits needed to play realmedia files.. fucking well done guys"
Its not open source's fault,
Its not open source's fault, the copyright laws wont let them. Why dont you start yelling at the people who actually are preventing you from playing your real media files, not the people who are working toward having them work.
Are you kiding? Are you
Are you kiding?
Are you stupid?
Did you don't study before you write?
Media players on linux ( or *BSD) are not shipping the 'bits to play realmedia files' cause this codecs (your 'bits'), are under strengst copyright and not because the programers are not capable of doing it.
Don't blame Opensource, when you should blame closedsource and copyright!
And please .. do NOT coment my English if you don't speak at least 4 languages .. Thanks
Agreed, there are multiple
Agreed, there are multiple times I Looked at whining and b****ing here for things that can't be done because of fear from copyright, or patent in infringment, and other similar things.
1.) You cannot LEGALLY play a DVD in many countries because doing so for linux would involve breaking the intrusive copyright protection around it, even if it is just to play it. :/ ALthough, this is basically not much of an issue since if people want to play it they'll play it. And this isn't linux's fault its the fault. :|
Hmm, I had 2 more but my memory broke (my way of saying I was a bit worked up about the first one to remember what it was)...something about why things like flash, and proprietary drivers aren't enabled by default besides the 'Free Software Ideal.' >_> If you want a distribution that uses a lot of these drivers though I Will recommend Linux Mint, its ubuntu, but more 'elegant' and simple from what I read (mind you, you still have to use a repository (package manager)) But don't expect it to be the easiest thing ever.
On another note, most of you do not even install windows by yourselves. :/ If linux was available on more computers pre-installed, and you guys bought it, you guys wouldn't have to fiddle around as much since then at least you would be absolutely certain all your hardware can work nor would you guys whine about its difficulty. You cannot blame Linux if your hardware doesn't work. The issues are way beyond just the developpers. And the fact that windows has majority of the marketshare which is not linuxs fault and doesn't matter, if you wanna use something you're familiar STICK WITH THIS DAMN IT if you wanna try something new use linux and don't expect lack of difficulty.
Sorry, but a lot of this whining I've seen here was pointless, and just headache inducing not because /ALL OF IT/ Was accurate, a lot of it had truth to it, but most of it was whining about very simplistic crap. o_O Yes, the command line is difficult for new comers, should you have been warned about this? Of course, why weren't you? Whoever introducted you to linux was a dumb@$$. Honestly, when your OS Is community based you get all sorts of people, the elitist jack@$$, the calm, and patient 'teacher' type, noobs, developer,s and many other types. You can't call 'ALL' linux fans elitests. -___________-;
"On another note, most of
"On another note, most of you do not even install windows by yourselves."
Oh, but that's beside the point entirely. Are we to compare Linux to Windows on a level playing field, or in the real world? It's pretty damned hard to tell someone, "My operating system is better than yours would be if yours didn't work as well as it does."
:/ The point I was making
:/ The point I was making is, a lot of you who seem to suggest linux is a pain because 'everything' doesn't work out of the box are just being silly. I have a brother who didn't even /know/ how to reinstall the drivers for his prebuilt machine, and he is in his late 20's and has owned that machine for like 5-6 years. If someone is that stupid on windows (no offense for the word stupid) why would they whine when Linux gets a similar issue? If you want EVERYTHING to work out of the box, just buy something prebuilt, there are little to no prebuilt linux machines though, so good luck if you want one. -_- The only minor difficulty I see so far (which isn't so minor...) is installing things without a package manager.
Also, he still doesn't know how to reinstall the drivers, and he doesn't seem to care. I honestly believe he should get a mac, it be perfect for him. :| He wouldn't break his machine, as much, or even at all.
And for those who say the Mac isn't much better, it is if you want ease of use, stability, eye candy, and security. Its only a pain in the arse at first because its not what you're familiar with. I've also heard no complaints from Mac users, the only issue, which again is true for any OS, except windows because its so mainstream, are the elitists.
Although, personally I don't think there are as many Linux elitests as you guys make think. And when I go on irc, since I am still starting out, I'd have to say there aren't as 'many' people who say, "Get windows,' if you ask properly, nicely, and act respectful you go a lot further than if you 'demand' something as well. But you also have to figure out how to properly word your question, and not feel stupid if you don't know anything specific. Which was difficult for me at first, the only reason they tell you to RTFM is because most likely the information you are looking for is there, if you had enough time to ask a question through a chat channel, or a forum you also had enough time to read it and you are just being lazy. If you don't understand part of the text, just ask what it means, if someone is being to complicated ask they rephrase it. But I honestly believe this issue won't occur if you use a distro aimed at noobs, like say Mint, SuSE, or Ubuntu. But it also depends on how the community of that distro is like too, the community of the distro I use is actually quite nice (not gonna recommend it, since its not newbie friendly, even if the documentation is good you're expected to know your way around.
And yes, Linux does support more hardware, not necessarily the type of hardware consumers it like to the fullest though (Lack of free , or open graphics card software of a decent quality in 3D performance, and sound card or occasionally very vague Wifi adapters and other stuff). But because windows has the most marketshare it rains supreme when it comes to the average user. >_> Then again, not many consumers would install Linux on their iPods, PS2, PS3, Xbox, Xbox 360, cellphone, and other device its not necessary. The only thing that beats linux in terms of portability in this realm is NetBSD, but even then there are still types of hardware that probably won't work with it (It also gets less software support (bsd that is) example: no office flash drivers).
Sorry for the long stuff I wrote, I just wanetd to write down all my thoughts somewhere. :/ Sadly someone is gonna disagree and say, "I shouldn't have to do any of this," or, "That is stupid and unnecessary!" -_- But I just see it as that, the whole OS is COMMUNITY based, these people volunteer to help (occasionally you get @$$holes, but thats the price you pay for something with a lot of community support that isn't main stream). If you want, or NEED support there is some support for it, I've seen cannonical, novell, and Red Hat have some, but this is paid support and isn't necessary and very expensive. You never pay for the OS just the support, but if you are gonna go for all that hassle you may as well get windows or stick to the free, community forums.
Damn it, I did it again @_@; well, I am done this time, I mean it XD
chill out, your emotions
chill out, your emotions almost made me think that you are the one who is a stupid
No, you got me there. I've
No, you got me there. I've always wished I could be pompous and rude in four languages.
This is some kind of nerd
This is some kind of nerd talk? "4 languages " appears 2 times in your two comments,... maybe some kind of "nerd shows its abilities and want to talk about them".
It is sad. (by the way, tak a look that write "its" instead of "his"... jeje)