Post #1642750

2026-04-24 17:52 UTC

@Haijo7 @Craigp This. Most people aren't even native English speakers. Claiming that “all the potential users” are so put off by four apparently random letters that it's the only reason they keep paying Adobe licences isn't very convincing. Like someone else already pointed out: how good must a name be? Is Inkscape an industry standard yet because of its inoffensive name? By that same logic, why would anyone want to use 3D software sharing names with a destructive kitchen appliance made to turn things into mush? Yet Blender seems to be doing well enough. And yeah, like Haijo here said, git should be the best counterpoint. I keep telling people, even Americans, the old joke that Linus named two projects after himself: Linux and git. No one gets it. And everyone uses it.

Replies (1)

@Mudlark@bark.lgbt 2026-04-24 20:11

@routpatt @Haijo7 @Craigp I think that if a FOSS project has an acronym name that’s a slur (putting aside the other connotation for the word) then not only is it going to be broadly unappealing to users, but it’s going to affect who wants to contribute to the project too. I feel like a lot of people here are missing that context because the word is less commonly used these days. But if you look in a dictionary you’ll see that the first definition for the word is something along the lines of ‘an offensive term for a disabled person’. Blender and git, by contrast are just regular words. Git is an insult, but not a slur, so. Having that as a project name would discourage any good devs from contributing, and id argue that played a part in how it’s still not a great piece of software to use after 20+ years.

Open ##1642752