This GIMP issue means nothing to me, and I refuse to let a puritan (almost The Handmaid’s Tale-like) crew dictate societal norms.
Hear me out… Everything doesn’t have to be an acronym.
EDHTBAA, got it
So, we’ll pronounce it “Wilbur”?
I’m sure those in charge of this had the argument and went 'round and 'round with it. And, this is what they came up with.
Whatever, we’ll get used to it, but I’m not sure it’s a good idea. It will probably hurt brand recognition more than the mildly-offensive “GIMP” ever has. At least when noobs heard “gimp”, their ears would perk up in mild surprise, and they’d ask what it is, there-by solidifying the product in their minds. “Wilbur” just won’t have the same effect, because there’s no surprise. They’ll ask, but the impact will not be as great, and they’ll forget. “Wilbur” is forgettable as a name for anything, or anyone. “Gimp” is not.
What on God’s green earth is WLBR supposed to mean? Why can’t it have a normal, good name?
Linux devs are not good at naming things lol
Can’t deploy gunicorn workers without thinking of a unicorn with a gun where it’s horn is supposed to be.
Wilber is a name.
Its the name of the dog thing in the GIMP logo
Ah fuck, if Gif vs Gif all over again.
The great thing about foss is you can call it whatever you want, fork it even if you feel so inclined.
I mean, so long as it remains configurable and they don’t change the entire project. I don’t see an issue with giving folks the option to mask the name in environments where they might not want to attract anyone’s ire.
At that point just change it to BEKKNQV
I’ve always thought the better recourse for problematic labels is for the targets of their denigration to embrace and claim them as their own. This diminishes, and potentially eliminates, the power of their oppressors to wield it in an incendiary way, and they can then choose to suppress its use once the imbalance has shifted sufficiently.
Note: this is from the perspective of someone who largely embodies the peak of unearned social and demographic privilege, so season with NaCl to suit.
I didn’t know Gimp was a slur/cuss. I always knew GIMP as nothing but the mediocre image manipulation tool.
Depending on context, it can be an image editor, slur, or kink term. I’d bet money on the image editor being named for the kink term and it’s very possible the original devs didn’t know it was a slur in certain regions.
Can I just use regular iodized table salt, or do I have to have pure, lab-grade sodium chloride?
I think they should keep both names and just have WLBR be the “enterprise” version.
However, in non-English speaking countries, nobody has an issue with GIMP. And even my very religious and Murican MIL uses Gimp. She doesn’t even know.
If anything, those discussions further the association, as they come up when you google “gimp program sexual” or sth like that.
It’s short for GNU image manipulation program. I mean, you could short it to imp, or rename it to Picture & Image Manipulation Program (PIMP).
I think they should keep both names and just have WLBR be the “enterprise” version.
there’s an enterprise version?
I propose Scriptable Image Manipulation Program (SIMP)
SIMPly genius!
Gimp is really just a rare/archaic ableist slur anyway - like to refer to someone with a limp or otherwise a leg/lack of a leg that impedes their gait. I’ve never heard it used in my life.
The sexual usage is from gay bdsm subculture in the 70s that the large majority of ppl who are aware of it are only aware because of Pulp Fiction.
My vote is for pimp
It meant that stretchy plastic craft string when I was a kid.
It must be something that can’t possibly be construed as sexual innuendo, like Linux Image Manipulation Program (LIMP)…
It’s a GNU program, not a Linux program. It runs on multiple platforms.
Windows
Linux
BSD
Ringo (apple)image editor.
You have to set the WLBR_IS_GIMP env variable to get the new name. So I guess that might be what they going for, at least for now?
I get what you are saying but IMO the old name was hurting adoption. Imagine the headlines if say some city or government announced they are moving to GIMP from photoshop or affinity.
The terrible UI is hurting adoption.
To be honest, this seems like a stupid fix to a non-issue.
There’s already Latex, and the purists calling it Lateh only make it seem like they know and are ashamed.
Or Uranus being pronounced not as your-anus but urine-us. The “alternate/kid-friendly” option is just plain worse. It also teaches kids certain words are bad, which is a bad idea for a multitude of resons I won’t get into.
I say keep GIMP GIMP, loud and clear. No need to be ashamed, because it isn’t shameful.
Attempting to avoid this absolute non-issue by ingenious pronounciation or rebranding just exacerbates the issue.
It’s called “GIMP” and not “Fuck Me then Go Out The Door”. Wether or not GIMP was a moment of “funny humor” or not is beside the point. The “official” explanation is perfectly belieavable, and therefore suitable enough. Just run with it.
If an idiot asks “Why’s it called like [insert-here]”, just say it’s a fucking coincidence and you don’t care. Call them dirty-minded for bonus points.
There’s already Latex, and the purists calling it Lateh only make it seem like they know and are ashamed.
It’s always been pronounced “Lah-tek” or “Lay-tek” (not “Lateh”). That’s because it comes from Greek where X makes a K sound.
Knuth’s book states plainly that the X sounds like the ‘ch’ in the Scottish word “Loch”. (Or the ‘h’ in hawk-tua for more modern readers.)
Or Uranus being pronounced not as your-anus but urine-us. The “alternate/kid-friendly” option is just plain worse. It also teaches kids certain words are bad, which is a bad idea for a multitude of resons I won’t get into.
Look, there’s nothing wrong with the word “anus” but if you’re actually in the field of astronomy that particular pun starts to get old after about the 10 millionth time. Some people just want to be able to talk about the seventh planet without the room erupting in giggles every time they say its name.
Spare a thought for the poor astronomy student doing thesis work on the volatile gases of Uranus. They know, they get it, they just want to be able to have one serious conversation about it.
Another example is Coq, the interactive theorem prover, named after CoC, an abbreviation for calculus constructions, the type theory on which Coq is based, and the co-creator Thierry Coquand in whose native language (French) coq has no sexual connotation and is simply the word for rooster (male chicken).
I have just now seen on Wikipedia to gather this information that it was renamed to Rocq last year after 41 years.
is simply the word for rooster (male chicken).
As is in English?
Yeah, it seems like a totally unnecessary move.
I agree with the sentiment, but not the aggressive tone.
Also, *whether.
There’s already Latex
wait what? Latex is used in tons of non-sexytime things, surely nobody’s raising an eyebrow at that?
Well, people still do. Yet it hasn’t been rebranded. And GIMP should follow.
The “TeX” part is intended to be Greek though, and TeX predates LaTeX.
I pronounce Uranus as Οὐρανός
Soo… our-anus?
ΟΥ in Greek makes sounds like oo as in look,wood etc. It does not lead with a γ sound that would make Uranus sound naughty.
Of course it should also end in -os as -us is a Latin ending.
deleted by creator
Where are people getting that this is a rebrand?
It’s just an environment variable you can set that changes the name if it offends you.
For now. It seems like obvious water-testing.
And even if it isn’t, giving “users” (read: corporate middle managers never actually using the app) the “option” of the “name” “not being” “naughty”.
These all “these” are “concepts” GIMP can do without.
The name is what it is. You didn’t make the app, you don’t set the name. Simple as.
And to the makers/maintainers:
Is throwing old and loyal users under the bus worth it?
The conspiracy theorist in me can see this being the start of the end of GIMP. It wouldn’t be the first or the last FOSS project to “fall from grace”.
I’m not saying it will - I don’t want to do a detailed study of GIMP lore and current politics, but the simple act of potentially enabling a rename in the future is a GIANT FUCKING RED FLAG in my book.
Even with good intentions, it “enables” a “later” “usurpation”.
It’s like deliberately cutting yourself in the middle of pirrhana-infested pool.
The wound’s not deep. It isn’t dangerous. Nor do the pirrhanas notice right away.
But when they do… You’ll be lucky to just lose the leg you cut.
u still use blender right click select
GIMP is GIMP. It’s been GIMP for decades, and that name carries history, recognition, and a community that built something genuine. Rebranding it to WLBR feels like throwing all of that away for the sake of optics that most longtime users like myself frankly don’t care about. It’s not progress in any way, it’s unnecessary self-erasure. GIMP works, GIMP is known as such, and GIMP should stay exactly what it is…
Actually… I have quite a negative perception of GIMP. I’m primarily a Linux user, but I just remember it as something that’s either always felt obtuse to use, missing something I need, or sluggish for the more narrow processing I’m trying to do.
AFAIK that perception is more pronounced outside Linux.
I don’t care about a brand either way. But if the GIMP project is ready, I think a “fresh start” to draw in users without any preconceived notions is a good thing.
The fact that longtime users like yourself can’t see the value in anyone else’s opinion here is pretty on point in my experience with this community.
How is arguing for one side of the issue “not seeing the value of anyone else’s opinion”.
Because to you it’s virtually meaningless other than some weird nostalgia. For schools it’s the difference between a teacher being able to promote the software to 30 kids at a time or not. You may think that’s stupid, so does the teacher, it doesn’t matter.
Can you not put words into my mouth?
How else do you expect anyone to take this? 🙄
Rebranding it to WLBR feels like throwing all of that away for the sake of optics that most longtime users like myself frankly don’t care about.
You wrote
Because to you it’s virtually meaningless other than some weird nostalgia
responding to my comment. I didn’t take any side, let alone argued from with nostalgia; where does the “you” come from?
Since it’s called the GNU Image Manipulation Program, why not pick up the extremely low hanging fruit and call it GNU Imp? It also comes with a free mascot.
Edit: And given that Wilber already has a cheeky smile and two horn-like ears, it wouldn’t even be that much of a new mascot either. I mean come on people, do I have to think of everything around here?
“WLBR”
…just rolllrrrs … lorrrs … rolls off the tongue!
I think it’s a deliberately bad name chosen as a Malicious Compliance type fuck-you to people who wanted it to sound “professional”.
It took me reading the comments here to get that it’s pronounced Wilbur. I don’t get why it needs to be an acronym
It’s not open source unless the package name is a scabby dumpster fire.
As in the pig from Charlotte’s Web?
One of the Wright brothers maybe? Still has nothing to do with image editing though.
I suppose so. I’d rather they spell it out for simple readability. Like I don’t know what Krita means but easy to read. Kate text editor may mean something, I don’t know. Kdenlive is easy to read. Don’t know what the ‘den’ part is supposed to mean
Apparently it’s “KDE Non-Linear Video Editor”. At least kdenlive is easy to read in my opinion
I mean corporate names aren’t better meaning wise, they just have WAY more marketing behind them so they sound natural by virtue of being in your face until you capitulate.
What does 10^100 have to do with search engines? Also they spelled it wrong.
What does the biggest rainforest in the world have to do with shopping?
What do slight muscle spasms have to do with streaming?
What does a fruit have to do with shitty locked down phones and computers?
What does a colloquial superlative prefix have to do with taxis and food delivery?
What does the sound of a clock have to do with short videos? And before that it was a plant structure.
What does a reflective finish/coating have to do with web browsing?
All of those are pronouncable words.
WLBR isn’t a word, and the W makes it way too long to pronounce the letters separately in English. And Wilbur sounds old. It’s just not a good name, no matter which way you look at it.They should have gone with Imp.