slightly OT: BUT NEEDs to be said

[Adelein and Jeremy]

Even if the original poster of this thread isn't serious, it brings
to mind a real concern I have.

RMS initiated the design of a free operating system - RMS wanted to
name it humorously, so RMS named *his* idea GNU. Along comes Joe
Netboy saying that GNU isn't marketable because it's mispronounced,
inserious, and has the wrong philosophy behind it.

Guido was the originator of the programming language we call Python -
Guido liked Monty Python, so he named *his* language Python. Along
comes Joe Netboy saying that Python is unmarketable due to political
(??!??) concerns would be a good name if only it were in reference to
something else other than what it is.

There are other examples which paint a disturbing trend (because even
if these are usually trollings, you know some people out there
believe what is said), but on with my point....

Well, AFAIK, neither of these projects were started in order to sell
the most copies. And, also AFAIK, both may be taken, repackaged,
RENAMED (look at how this was done with GNU when it magically became
Linux), and even sold by anyone anywhere to anyone else anywhere.

So if there exist people who really care about the mascot (??!???!!)
of a programming language, they are free to repackage this one with a
new name and even some changes in documentation and source code to
eliminate all references to Monty Python. Problem solved - *if* there
really is such a concern and this whole post is not just the random
trolling of a bored individual.

Well, that was my two cents - it's easy to ignore this kind of thing,
but I really think that attitudes like this tend to evolve into real
threats to the goals of projects that were never intended to be
commercial at the cost of all else - not that Python (or GNU, for
that matter) wasn't intended to be commercial.

- Jeremy

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