this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2024
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
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I think you're vastly overestimating how many people know about a random FOSS image editor. Gimp is not a household name.
When most people hear the word "gimp", they likely have something akin to this in mind (not an image editor):
IMO, that hinders adoption and certainly hinders financial support. It's an amusing name, granted, but it's not a good one if you wish to be taken seriously.
Not everyone is an emglish speaker so not everyone know what gimp means.
The name isn't the problem, it's that gimp is hard to use and has a weird UI
The name is definitely a problem.
They'd be much more likely to have adoption in the industry, increased development, more donations if they had a name that companies and governments aren't driven away by.
I know some people in the Linux world think branding doesn't matter, but it absolutely does.
I didn't say branding isn't important I'm saying that out of 8 billion people only like less than 1 billion has this issue. A lot of people, even in government positions of various countries, don't speak english (shocker I know), therefore they probably don't know what else gimp could mean, yet they still don't use that software, because it doesn't advertise itself and because it honestly isn't quite as good as other software.