Re: GNUstep web site and marketing thoughts

[Riccardo Mottola]

Hi,

a side-note thinking about logos ad "brands". We have a similar issue to 
what NeXT had... with some added confusion.
The logo was one: NeXT, although there were some recognizable images, 
like the object cubes which was on the actual software shrink-wrap

Then there was a lot of "naming" [*]. NeXT xxx for the hardware, 
NeXTSTEP NeXTstep, NeXTStep... and things got even more complicated with 
OpenStep.

So too they were trying to distinguish between the whole system 
(NeXTStep / NeXTSTEP), NextSTEP (APIs without OS...).
Things didn't improve that much with OpenStep... where actually things 
got less clear. Why OpenStep for Solaris but OPENSTEP for Windows?

So some of this confusion we inherit from our roots. Let's add that GNU 
is GNU and we can't play on the caps acronym and that we have no 
company/project name... since GNUstep is at the end of the project.
It could be used, as a coherency to indicate the core APIs which are 
portable, like NeXTstep.
We don't have a full OS since we are agnostic... but we could one day 
play on some desktop versions saying e.g. GNUSTEP/Linux GNUSTEP/BSD or 
GNUSTEP/Solaris.... if ever (no need for GNU/Linux please :) ).

However some more explicit names would be better and also what is in and 
what is out, so no to have orphans. After many years, I still don't know 
what exactly is Cocoa. Is it only Foundation+AppKit? and what are the 
other Kits part of? Core* libraries?

To explain what I mean for orphans.

Suppose (names are temporary)

GNUstep/Core (aka. "Stairway" or "GNUSTEP")
  * GNUstep/Foundation (=base)
  * GNUstep/AppKit (=gui+back)

GNUstep/Develop
  *GORM
  *ProjectCenter

GNUstep/UserApps
  *GWorkspace
  *SystemPreferences



so, where toes gnustepweb fit? or performance? webservices?
and things like boron, mica and other layer kits? etc etc etc...


EasyDiff... could be part of GNUstep/Develop


Riccardo

PS: one last thougt. Most of us are here for the fun in free time, some 
of us have or had jobs related to  GNUstep. So let's keep it fun, 
without making it too business. We are not fighting market share with QT 
or KDE. However most of us are professional, so it is nice to apply our 
knowledge to the project.


[*] 
http://www.kevra.org/TheBestOfNext/DifferentNeXTSpellings/DifferentNeXTSpellings.html