Firefox To Be Renamed In Debian

Viraptor writes, "Debian is ready to change the name of Firefox in its distributions, beginning with Etch. They say it can be done within a week. The reasons stem from Mozilla's recent insistence on trademark fidelity and its preferences regarding Firefox patches. Debian doesn't want to accept the original trademarked fox & globe logo; they don't see it as really 'free' to use. On the other hand, Mozilla doesn't want Firefox distributed under that name if it lacks the logo. Mozilla also wants Debian patches to be submitted to them before distribution, and claims that's what others (Red Hat and Novell) are already doing. But some believe development and releases will slow down if distribution-specific patches have to be checked and accepted first. We will surely see more clashes between copyright claims and 'really free' distros such as Debian. Ubuntu is also asking similar questions." No word yet what the new name will be or what the logo will look like.

In a sign of frustration, the new name will be

[Anonymous Coward]

Irefox.

new logo

[gbjbaanb]

Maybe it'll be a blue world or circle, with 'Internet' in the name somewhere, and perhaps, as its used to explore the wonders of the internet, add the word 'Explorer' to it perhaps.

I can't see that catching on though, they'll call it WaterVole or something equally stupid :)

FireGNU

[aaronwormus]

nuff said

Re:Well, then:

[gbjbaanb]

Or they could use a different logo/name combo that is quite similar to the original - how about FireFoxy [vegard2.no].

Slowing down...

[Anonymous Coward]

But some believe development and releases will slow down if distribution-specific patches have to be checked and accepted first.

Oh no, we don't want that. I mean, we just cannot have that. I mean, if Debian releases get any slower than they are now, they'd be going backwards in time.

In a sign of open warfare, the new name will be

[Mateo_LeFou]

Internet Foxplorer

Re:Well, then:

[maximusind]

That is probably the gayest thing I've ever seen. And I've seen two dudes fucking, too.

A new name

[canuck57]

Why not fireballmer (Couldn't resist)

Re:Can we get an internet or web in there somewher

[digitalhermit]

Agreed, products should always have names indicating their purpose. We need to lobby Congress to pass a law. For example, what the hell is a Buick Regal? Or iPod? Are there peas in an iPod? NO! Then why call it that. Look at DreamWeaver. What the hell does that have to do with the web? What's a DreamWeaver? Sounds like some euphemism for LSD or some shaman witchery. Evolution is an email client? WTF? What's this idiotic language called Ruby? What the hell does that have to do with programming? Or Perl? Or Python? Or C?

Here are my suggestions...
Firefox should be "HTTP/FTP/Gopher/Archie/XML Renderer"
DreamWeaver should be "Software for Designing HTTP/XML Format Documents for Internet Usage"
C should be "Low to Medium Level Computing Language"
Gentoo should be "Linux Distribution for People Who Prefer to Churn Their Own Butter" (I kid, I kid)

Funniest part

[93 Escort Wagon]

"But some believe development and releases will slow down if distribution-specific patches have to be checked and accepted first."

Yes, we certainly wouldn't want Debian Stable's release frequency to slow down any further than it already is.

Re:Nerds arguing

[Anonymous Coward]

other peoples' anal-retentiveness

The apostrophe should go before the "s". "Other people's anal-retentiveness". Unless you refer to the multiple peoples of the world and mean to exclude your own people, but that seems unlikely. Anyway, what anal-retentiveness?

Homer's view

[commodoresloat]

Mmmmm, stakes.....

Re:How did I know /. readers would confuse the iss

[masklinn]

I guess you probably misunderstood his post (or are just trolling him), but what he meant is that Debian considers that everything bundled in Debian and out of "non-free" should be freely modifiable by the users, and that this includes both the source and the images.

In a word, you can take any image bundled in a Debian "free" package and do whatever you want with it, no one will have anything to say about it.

I think it excludes the Debian logo itself though, and this is considered a bug.

Re:FreeFox

[Lemmy Caution]

"Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come."

It's a quote. [wikiquote.org] From Matt Groening.

Firefox. Iceweasel. It's clever.

Re:NSFW

[Korin43]

Good thing my boss can't read!

new name? ok... hmm...

[adrianmonk]

Well, there's Firefox, and fire is one of the four elements (fire, water, earth, and air), and of course a fox is a type of canid. So, the logic choices are obviously:

• Earthwolf
• Waterjackal
• Airhyena

Well, I guess those aren't the only permutations. There is also Airwolf, but unless the Debian people are really into bad 1980's television shows about helicopters...

Re:FreeFox

[bulliver]

What about the WTFPL [1]:

Do What The Fuck You Want To Public License,
TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION

0. You just DO WHAT THE FUCK YOU WANT TO.

[1] http://sam.zoy.org/wtfpl/ [zoy.org]

Re:Well, then: - compromise

[ancientt]

Direfox.

I know, too simplistic, but if it could work, it would work like this:

• Debian: How about we call it something people will recognize as associated with your fine work, but not actually the exact same thing?
• Mozilla: Um, okay, what?
• Debian: Direfox. People will recognize your fine product but our users will appreciate it is patched by us and your users will know it is different somehow from yours. If they're the same user they can have both if they really want.
• Mozilla: I guess that protects our name, what about our logo?
• Debian: We'll wrap the fox around a geenie bottle.

Nods all around

Everybody shakes hands and signs something to pay the lawyer. Then everybody goes back to doing good/reliable/free/socially responsible/crack software.

• A Perl command to instantly rename and re-iconize Firefox gets passed around. This is unofficially supported inside Mozilla and somebody from Debian buys beer for somebody in Mozilla to make sure it stays that way.
• Somebody throws a fit about wanting "Firefox" in Debian
• Debian puts Firefox in contrib and leaves Direfox in the base

---
No elk were harmed in the making of this sig.

Re:Well, then:

[ultranova]

It edges out ever so slightly.

And OS-tans [wikipedia.org] ? What's your take on them [wikipedia.org] ?-)

And I'll make it clear now I'm no fan of anime, hentai or any other related shite either.

Of course you're not. You happened by 4chan completely by accident, have never looked at any boards besides /b/, and keep on watching it just because of funny animal pictures. And to laugh at the sad geeks without lives who drool over the stuff.

I just think it goes slightly over the line from "geeky" into "just plain weird".

Worrying about your public image in the Internet under an alias goes slightly over the line from "lack of self-confidence" into "just plain sad" ;).

For the record: I visit 4chan, monstergirl and shoujoai.com, have written a Bash scripts to download the new pics from my favorite boards (not just 4chan either), have several gigabytes of hentai and furry (funny animal porn) pictures, spend my Friday nights looking for more, collect Dungeons and Dragons rulebooks despite not being social enough to find any other gamers and am proud of myself for this. Oh, and I'm a librarian.

From my sixth-floor apartment I stab at thee, Real Life !