12 Really Bad Open Source Project Names

Here's a light article for December.

I once joked that if open source developers created a financial program, they would name it "Bankruptcy" and would wonder why businesses wouldn't install it. Here's a list of real open source project names.

1. android - A cold, emotional-less mechanical figure representing a social-interaction device. Right.
2. bush - Honestly, he wasn't President of the United States when I named my Business Shell.
3. elinks - Not to be confused to with lynx browser.
4. hylafax - If you have to explain in your FAQ that your name refers to the genus of tree frogs, this is the wrong name for your product.
5. gimp - My favorite program is a person who struggles to operate and move forward.
6. groovy - You know it's deprecated by its name but what does exactly does it do, man?
7. mysql - It's pronounced "my s. q. l." not "my sequel".
8. less - Less may be more, but what if you were born after 1995?
9. pentaho - Do I need to explain? On the other hand, it might appeal to soulless executives so maybe it's not so bad a name.
10. pirut - Say what?
11. vuze - About as confusing as naming your production "Windows". Developers too dumb to spell simple English words.
12. xen - Try explaining what you're not talking about zend.

Here's a few good names.

• freetype - It's free, it's like Truetype.
• git - When you want to "git" something from the source code repository.
• samba - Immediately brings to mind SMB, the protocol it emulates.
• postgreSQL - The successor to the Ingress database.

Think about your audience before you name your project.

December 17, 2008