wxWindows changes name

[Anand Pillai]

Is this a sign that the corporation is getting panicky? 
It normally happens to a company when they get panicky
that they tend to focus on side-issues.   

Microsoft never used to spend on TV ads much AFAIK. Now
they are doing it... I wonder what is happening in Redmond.

-Anand

paul at boddie.net (Paul Boddie) wrote in message news:<23891c90.0402250227.7d07849f at posting.google.com>...
> "Terry Reedy" <tjreedy at udel.edu> wrote in message news:<mailman.57.1077648520.8594.python-list at python.org>...
> > "Piet van Oostrum" <piet at cs.uu.nl> wrote in message
> > news:wzy8qsfqe6.fsf at ordesa.cs.uu.nl...
> > 
> > > So what will happen to the X Window system, often referred to as
> > > XWindows.
> 
> For the nth time, it isn't referred to as XWindows in any official or
> meaningful sense.
> 
> > Isn't there a consortium or something, with much more resources ($$$) to
> > fight than Julian and Robin have?
> 
> Yes, it's called Sun Microsystems who used the OpenWindows name ages
> ago:
> 
>   http://step.polymtl.ca/~coyote/open-look/01-general/faq-doc-1.html
> 
> I guess Microsoft aren't up for yet more protracted legal action
> involving Sun, so they go for the small guy instead.
> 
> [...]
> 
> > It is a complement to Julian and Robin that MS noticed them enough to
> > threaten and negotiate with them.  Also that they did not just cave but
> > negotiated a 6 month transition period and $ for transition costs.
> 
> Microsoft deserves no compliments whatsoever. This is just a case of a
> company blatantly misusing a generic term which they've been told they
> can't even enforce as a trademark in the United States, surfing
> different legal systems in order to find places where they can carry
> out acts reminiscent of extortion on legitimate activities and
> businesses, and then bullying small outfits who can't afford to argue
> for any substantial period of lawyer time.
> 
> For once, the United States is actually a beacon of sanity in all
> this. There's Lindows being issued with injunctions all over the
> planet for the use of a name which resembles Windows; there's the
> bloke behind Mobilix being forced to change his site's name to
> TuxMobil because the publishers of Asterix think they own every name
> ending with "ix". The only positive thing about the former case is
> that Michael Robertson seems to know enough about public relations to
> make every aggressive move by Microsoft an embarrassment for them
> whilst raising the profile of his own business.
> 
> So, how is it a compliment that a corporation waits several years
> before jumping on an now-established project whose name doesn't really
> infringe on any reasonable trademark? How does threatening behaviour
> deserve any compliment whatsoever?
> 
> Paul