Re: Consideration in naming products (was: Re: Apache Server Announcement)

Rob Hartill ([email protected])
Mon, 24 Apr 1995 11:40:34 +0500


Speaking for myself, and not necessarily the Apache group or LANL..

> The Apache server is free, nobody's exploiting the name for profit, at
> the expense of the Apache people.
>
> You may not be making profit in money, but you are making "profit" in
> reputation. You must have percieved *some* advantage or favorable
> connotation in using the name, else why pick it? Surely you don't
> your projects at LANL by picking a word at random from the dictionary.

If you read the Apache FAQ, you'll see why the name was picked.

LANL projects are named after pseudo-random acronyms, at least
that's the way I see it.

> I'm sure if we called it the "English", "Welsh", "French"... server,
> none of those nations would feel hurt in any way. Why should the
> Apache feel any different ?. Suggesting they might feel differently
> is probably a bigger insult to them than using the name.
>
> Because unlike the English and French, the Apache were violently
> persecuted, nearly to extinction, by foreign conquerors. (The Welsh
> were persecuted as well.)

..and the Welsh wouldn't be offended if a httpd server were
named after them.

Apache, pronounced "something-else".

rob