NEW KDE Naming Scheme Proposal

Beginner

Location: Central KY, USA

Wednesday, February 7th 2007, 2:56pm

I love the sophistication and polish of KDE...!

I have the sense that the upcoming 4 release will be a milestone for the KDE environment. As a long time KDE user (since 1st release) I think that KDE is just about ready for "mainstream" use in the business community. One of the main things holding the desktop back in my opinion is the lack of sophistication in file and app naming.

Just how many names begining with a "K" Kan we Kome up with anyway? !!!!! Isn't it time to give that tired old novelty a well deserved rest? The argument "for" this type of naming is aktually a very savy attempt at "product branding."

The developers use the "K" in much the same way that ibm or Apple uses it's logo. for example when I see an app named "AmaroK" I know it is most likely a KDE based app.

Kan't we all just agree that KDE has accomplished it's goal of branding it's software and quit using the geeky "K" names?

I propose a better naming system. It is more pleasing to the eye and just makes more sense. Both for KDE, Gnome, and developers who develop for multiple linux environments:

Why not just use a lower case "k" at the beginning of the app name to denote it's environment?

kMediaPlayer instead of AmaroK
kImageview
kControlCenter
kOfficeSuite
kMessenger instead of Kopete

Maybe even k-MediaPlayer, k-Imageview, g-MediaPlayer, g-Imageview, etc...

gMediaPlayer, gImageViewer, gOfficeSuite, etc...

Doesn't this make better sense? If Linux is suppossed to be all about freedom then why have we locked ourselves into using such silly "K" names?

-------------------------
~I used to think I was indecisive, but now I'm not too sure.
~The word “gullible” isn’t in the dictionary.
~Give me ambiguity or give me something else.
~Remember that you are unique; just like everyone else.

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Fri13

Beginner

Posts: 8

Location: Finland homeland of Linux

2

Wednesday, February 7th 2007, 6:02pm

RE: NEW KDE Naming Scheme Proposal

Ok, first i like to thank you about knowing reason for K in applications names, reason for that is user knows is application Qt or GTK+...

And personally i really like KDE name style because it is more different than about "mediaplayer" "videoplayer" etc... Problem on windows style naming is when user has more than _one_ application installed, all gets same name. Or if few different users has few different applications, why those names should be same when applications aren't?

One my friend always blames Linux names, he thinks windows applications names are best what you can have, "windows mediaplayer" "winamp" "Microsoft Office (or Office or MS office)" etc, he says OpenOffice name is really stupid and it just should be "Office". He even blames AmaroK about it name, because it dont tell user it is music player.
And he's blacklist even goes to distros names, SUSE, Mandriva, Kubuntu, Ubuntu etc etc... I dont know why he likes name "Windows" so much and why it sounds so "professional" and KDE not?

In short way, i just hope that KDE will continue using K in applications names, there is _very good_ K-menu naming, like "AmaroK (Music Player)" or "Kaffeine (Multimedia Player)" what tells users easily what application does, just plain "Kaffeine" does not and "Multimedia player" dont tell user what application he is using.

Application name should always be very unique, it should be easy to say or remember but there should not be any other limit for it's name and all software names should _not_ be so similar.

More what effect feeling about applications "karma" about pro using, is look, like splash screen should be more like Photoshop and not like Digikam, not so much toy feeling. I really like Digikam and i dont know any better software for over 60 000 picture storing (not even windows side or macosx!) but only thing what i "hate" is splash and how it looks when showing software for other photographers....

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mshelby1

Beginner

Posts: 16

Location: Central KY, USA

3

Wednesday, February 7th 2007, 6:21pm

RE: NEW KDE Naming Scheme Proposal

You make a few valid points.

I didn't intend to say that ALL apps sould be given generic names, just that apps shouldn't use silly "K" substitutions in the spelling of the name.

Also, my point was put forward in an effort to standardize linux gui package naming naming for individual applications.

-------------------------
~I used to think I was indecisive, but now I'm not too sure.
~The word “gullible” isn’t in the dictionary.
~Give me ambiguity or give me something else.
~Remember that you are unique; just like everyone else.

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Rinse

Professional

Posts: 797

4

Thursday, February 8th 2007, 11:49am

Quoted

The developers use the "K" in much the same way that ibm or Apple uses it's logo. for example when I see an app named "AmaroK" I know it is most likely a KDE based app.

amaroK is now called Amarok, for the reasons you mentioned.

other new technology for kde4 is named:
akonadi, strigi, plasma, solid, phonon, decibel, etc.etc.

no K anymore in the naming scheme

Help mee om KDE 3.5.5 in het Nederlands te vertalen

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Indy Jones

Beginner

Posts: 1

5

Tuesday, February 20th 2007, 9:31am

You should make a difference between apps that are used in a business environment, and apps that are primarly used in a home environment.

For Office and PIM-apps it might be best to use neutral names, so they can easily be spotted in a "boring" office(kOffice, kontact).
For home users it think it's better marketing to use out of place original names(amaroK, Kaffeine).

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