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Phoenix and Minotaur Get New Names

blazerw11 writes "Phoenix and Minotaur have been officially renamed to Firebird for the browser and Thunderbird for the mail client. Interestingly, they're both named after cars I often see in my neighbors' lawns. At least these cars were pretty fast before they were put up on cinder blocks. Personally, I like the names and the browser is great. I'm writing this with one of the last Phoenix Nightlies."

485 comments

  1. wOOt! by DwarfGoanna · · Score: 4, Funny

    So the 'Phear This!' and 'Calvin pissing on IE' skins will be forthcoming, right? =)

    --

    "You know why you do not see me styling wit my homies? Because I have no homies!!" -Mojo Jojo

    1. Re:wOOt! by chunkwhite86 · · Score: 1

      So the 'Phear This!' and 'Calvin pissing on IE' skins will be forthcoming, right? =)

      Don't forget the confederate flag stickers and obligatory NRA sticker.

      --
      I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
  2. in related news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    In related news, Internet Explorer is being renamed "Pinto," reflecting its tendency to blow up.

    1. Re:in related news... by Mipmap · · Score: 5, Funny

      I moderated you to flamebait - because, well, Pintos are flamebait (and so is IE)

    2. Re:in related news... by deadsaijinx* · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      For me its the Gremling or nothing. Now that was one hot car (especially when it exploded). Course, I really don't know why you would ever name a car model Gremling (even if it was appropriate).

      Now, excuse me as I get modded off-topic.

      --
      YOU SUCK BALLS!
    3. Re:in related news... by cant_get_a_good_nick · · Score: 1

      Your Delta Tau Chi name is Pinto.
      Why Pinto?
      WHY NOT!!!

    4. Re:in related news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Ford and GMC have threatened legal action on the newly renamed Firebird and Thunderbird web browser and email clients. AMD is considering similar action. Rumor has it they were considering using the name Firebird for their next line of processors.
      In other developments TOHO copyright holders of Godzilla are considering their stance in all the flurry.

    5. Re:in related news... by idiotnot · · Score: 1

      AMC Gremlin. And they didn't have the Pinto's exploding problems. Good car, actually, if a bit odd-looking.

    6. Re:in related news... by AvitarX · · Score: 1

      No, they were crap cars. They were under powered and/or overwight.

      They were originally designed for the smaller more powerful rotary engines that crapped out at 20,000 miles (this was discovered late in the cars designing. The V6 they tossed in didn't cut it like it should of.

      The weight problem led to not very good performance and bad fuel economy so the car was neither sporty or economy.

      It is one of the cars that blesses the pages of a book on auto lemons I own (as does the Pinto due to it's tendancy to exploade).

      The gremlin has a "cool" look to it, but besides that is is not a good car.

      P.S. I was going to buy one based soley on the (un)cool factor, but the price was too high to justify it (I had 1500 for a car, not the 4000 the guy wanted).

      --
      Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
    7. Re:in related news... by FatRatBastard · · Score: 0, Troll

      BEEEEELLLLLLCCCCCHHHHHHH!!!!!

    8. Re:in related news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I thought it was being renamed 'Pinto' because it makes you fart, like pinto beans do.

    9. Re:in related news... by idiotnot · · Score: 1

      You're thinking of the Pacer, not the Gremlin. The Gremlin was the standard AMC Hornet with about a foot lopped off. Considering that the basic Hornet platform survived for ninteen years (1970-1988, when the last AMC Eagle was made), I'd say that it was a pretty good design.

      The Pacer, otoh, yes, you're correct. It was originally supposed to have a Wankel rotary engine and front wheel drive. Due to development problems and fuel economy regulations, they widened the car, made it rear wheel drive, and shoehorned the standard AMC (232 or 258 cid) inline six in. Heavy, underpowered, weird-looking. Some interesting innovations (rack and pinion steering), but basically a strange car.

      Take a look at this page for more info.

    10. Re:in related news... by gabec · · Score: 3, Funny

      Of course, since you posted on this topic as yourself, your moderation points were removed from his post. So good job. ;)

    11. Re:in related news... by qazxsw · · Score: 4, Funny

      Pinto? I heard IE was being renamed Yugo!

    12. Re:in related news... by derF024 · · Score: 0

      The Mazda RX-8 is based on a new rotary design, and appears to be a rather powerful and reliable engine with lots of praise.

      the entire RX line is based on a rotary engine (hence the 'R'.) The RX-7, which preceded the RX-8 was one hell of a fast car, and they were fairly reliable. The main problem was getting a mechanic who _could_ work on them, since most mechanics don't have experience with rotary engines.

    13. Re:in related news... by foonf · · Score: 1

      In other developments TOHO copyright holders of Godzilla are considering their stance in all the flurry.

      You know, this actually almost happened. Doesn't sound like it is going anywhere, though.

      --

      "(Man) tries to live his own life as if he were telling a story. But you have to choose: live or tell." --Sartre
    14. Re:in related news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Moderator has obviously never seen Animal House.

      (Mutters something obscene about Animal House not being a Troll)

    15. Re:in related news... by Goth+Biker+Babe · · Score: 1

      To be a sad pendant Ford don't own the trademark (or what ever it is) on Thunderbird. They licenced it from Triumph who still own, hence the new Triumph Thunderbird motorcycle.

    16. Re:in related news... by Surak · · Score: 2, Interesting

      What is it with browsers and e-mail clients being named after cars anyway?

      Netscape Navigator -> Lincoln Navigator
      Internet Explorer -> Ford Explorer
      Lynx -> Mercury Lynx
      Mozilla Firebird -> Pontiac Firebird
      Mozilla Thunderbird -> Ford Thunderbird

      Hmmmm...all Ford products with the exception of Firebird. Maybe they should've picked 'Mustang'. ;)

    17. Re:in related news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That would be Internet Exploder (R).

    18. Re:in related news... by BrokenHalo · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Of course, nobody outside the US has a bloody clue what you're talking about :-)

      Oh, wait - Triumph made a motorbike called a Thunderbird back in the sixties. I seem to remember calling it the thunderbox, though - it really wasn't up to the standard of many of their other bikes.

    19. Re:in related news... by computechnica · · Score: 1

      The Pacer had a nice big back seat. Wink..Wink..know whata mean!

      Got my first knobber in one 8^O

    20. Re:in related news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's ok. Ignore him, and he'll go bother a smaller country instead.

    21. Re:in related news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You have it backwards in regards to "Navigator" Netscape's navigator was released years before Lincoln named their super-glorified station wagon with the same moniker.

    22. Re:in related news... by Alien+Being · · Score: 1

      Bullshit. Gremlins were very solid and reliable cars, and if you wanted a little oomph, you could opt for the larger 6 cyl engine and a shorter rear gear. If you wanted lots of oomph, you could get a V8. None of them had V6s, all inline.

    23. Re:in related news... by mgs1000 · · Score: 1
      You forgot about the MacOS browsers:

      Camino -> Chevy El Camino
      Safari -> GMC Safari

      All GM products. :)

    24. Re:in related news... by Alien+Being · · Score: 1

      RX7's came to the US in 1978 and took 10 seconds to hit 60mph. Sporty yes, fast no.

      They redesigned the car for 1986 and offered a turbo version which got to 60 in about 7 seconds. I know two people who had them and thought they were horrible.

      The third generation (1992?) cars had twin turbos and did 0-60 in under 6 seconds, but they cost over $30k, which was waaaay too much.

      The rotary engines were pretty cool, but they were fuel hogs and prone to catastrophic failure.

    25. Re:in related news... by nelsonal · · Score: 1

      From what I've read, the new side valves and lower turbo pressure should greatly improve reliability in the RX-8 over the RX-7. The old rotaries had point valves, which are cheap and easy but start to leak faster.

      --
      Degaussing scares the bad magnetism out of the monitor and fills it with good karma.
    26. Re:in related news... by Rand+Race · · Score: 1

      Since Mazda moved the injection ports to the side of the rotor housings (with the 13B-SPI lump) in 1985, reliability of non-turbo rotaries has been fairly good. 200,000 miles before a rebuild is not unheard of, although 120k is more normal. The new Renesis engine with both injection and exhaust ports mounted on the side of the housing should be even more reliable while having as much power as the 13B-REW twin-turbo in a package weighing only 60% as much.

      --
      Insanity is the last line of defence for the master diplomat. But you have to lay the groundwork early.
    27. Re:in related news... by 4of12 · · Score: 1

      I always kind of liked the AMC Pacer with the wraparound greenhouse glass.

      AMC cars had something of a reputation of having problems compared with other makes, but they looked nice.

      --
      "Provided by the management for your protection."
    28. Re:in related news... by Monkey+Angst · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Netscape Navigator -> Lincoln Navigator
      Those are all pretty funny, except that Netscape's Navigator predates Lincoln's. Both suffer from bloat, though.
      --
      stripShow - Where WordPress meets webcomics
    29. Re:in related news... by bsd_usr · · Score: 1

      Super-glorified station wagon? No, it's more like a super-glorified Ford Expedition.

      I think I'd rather have a Ford Expedition than a Lincoln Navigator.

      Especially the '03 model. The dash have been redesigned and it looks so much better. The body look sleek and hot too. I'd like one with a 5.4 Liter beast putting out 350 lbs of torque at only 2500 rpm.

      Although, I think the Navigator does have a higher horsepower 32 valve version of the 5.4 Liter engine. But these are trucks where torque matters more.

      The only bad thing. These suckers must drink gas like mad. And in todays 2 bucks per gallon (live in CAlifornia) fuel economy, it really must suck.

    30. Re:in related news... by TheMidget · · Score: 1

      Are you the only one naive enough to never have heard of multiple accounts? ;-)

    31. Re:in related news... by schon · · Score: 2, Funny

      AMC cars had something of a reputation of having problems compared with other makes, but they looked nice.

      Don't tell me, let me guess:

      You bought every color of Imac ever made, right? :o)

    32. Re:in related news... by dildatron · · Score: 0, Troll

      Are you aware of how they figure out the horsepower of an engine? They measure the torque. Then they run that torque figure through an equation to calculate horsepower. You can't have one without the other, but you can have not enough torque when you need it. Torque is what you feel when you are driving, not horsepower. More specificall, in a truck you would want torque in the low end of the the rpm-band, that's where it is helpful.

      --


      If you had nuts on your chin, would they be chin nuts?
    33. Re:in related news... by DeputySpade · · Score: 1

      *shrug* I got 275K miles out of my motor (first-gen, not a 13b. I think it was an '83 car) with no rebuild. Only things I ever replaced were the starter and alternator. I wouldn't call the car fast, as such, because it had not torque whatsoever. Once you got it moving it was pretty jumpy, though and I would regularly bury the tach in races. Holding out longer between shifts then powershifting it bought it a little bit of an edge over just about anybody who didn't completely smoke you off the line.

      One time I did try to start it with ether though. NEVER do that to a rotory. Heh. Siezed the engine in about two seconds and had to push start it to unlock it. Tore up the seals pretty good I think because after that it lost a bit of power and burned quite a bit more oil than it used to.

      *sigh* I miss that car.

      --


      This space intentionally left blank
    34. Re:in related news... by juhaz · · Score: 1

      Are they? I haven't noticed. It's not like those words didn't exist before the car models came out.

      Navigator and Explorer are quite obvious names for both car and web browser, that's what you DO with them, they're named after purpose, not each other.

      Both Lynxes are named after cat, trying to catch the same image small and fast (and the browser even succeeds at being that ;))

      And I didn't know native americans had Ford Thunderbirds hundreds of years ago when they invented the things. Talk about high tech.
      It's just a cool word.

      Firebird assosiates neatly with phoenix, and it too has a meaning that predates any car.

    35. Re:in related news... by pough · · Score: 1

      The new Triumph, risen from the ashes like a Phoenix (ahem), is CURRENTLY making a Thunderbird. And it's magnificent.

    36. Re:in related news... by saintlupus · · Score: 1

      They were originally designed for the smaller more powerful rotary engines that crapped out at 20,000 miles

      No, you're thinking of the Pacer. The Gremlin was designed to have the engine that it shipped with.

      --saint
      (Proud owner of an AMC Matador Barcelona)

    37. Re:in related news... by bigbadwlf · · Score: 1

      Of course, nobody outside the US has a bloody clue what you're talking about

      I'm outside the US and I know exactly what he's talking about.
      USA != North America

    38. Re:in related news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you the only one to never have heard of IP tracing?

    39. Re:in related news... by wolverine1999 · · Score: 1

      Pinto was a Grandmaster of the Knights of Malta...

    40. Re:in related news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you the only one to never have heard of dynamic IP's?

    41. Re:in related news... by bengoodger · · Score: 1

      Or Nissan Safari, depending on where you come from. ( http://www.nissan.co.jp/SAFARI/ )

    42. Re:in related news... by murph · · Score: 1

      OmniWeb -> Dodge Omni

      Maybe?

      --
      I don't care about your karma, I don't care about what's hip. --Weird Al
    43. Re:in related news... by Surak · · Score: 1

      I have more than a few Canadian friends who would know exactly what I'm talking about. (I am, after all, ~15 mins from the Canadian border...)

    44. Re:in related news... by cant_get_a_good_nick · · Score: 1

      I always kind of liked the AMC Pacer with the wraparound greenhouse glass.

      The Pacer was designed that way for the new whizzbang GM Rotary motor (Wankel, like the RX-7, or new RX-8). GM never released it, having a lot of the same problems that always have plagued Wankels - no low-end torque, some emission issues. So AMC had a whizzbang new-looking car for a new whizzbang motor that never came out.

    45. Re:in related news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yugo, king of cars? Oh, wait, wrong thing... ;)

    46. Re:in related news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's funny. Laugh. *sigh*

    47. Re:in related news... by TheMidget · · Score: 1

      And open proxies...

    48. Re:in related news... by IpalindromeI · · Score: 1

      And anyway, you can only hold a trademark for a given industry. I would think automobiles and web browsers would be different enough that there would be no brand confusion among customers.

      --

      --
      Promoting critical thinking since 1994.
  3. a great compact browser by eenglish_ca · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Pheonix is a great browser for me cause I am stuck using P2 233 with winnt in my comp sci class with no ie installed. The only issue is that I have to store pheonix on my personal drive which is a max of 48 megs. The pheonix I use is 12 megs which is 1/4 of the space. Conclusion: Pheonix is a great light browser performance wise but it has to be more compressed in terms of size still.

    --
    Checking out my form of escapism.
    1. Re:a great compact browser by Effugas · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Have you tried runtime-compressing the Phoenix binary with UPX? Let me know how it goes.

      --Dan
      www.doxpara.com

    2. Re:a great compact browser by deadsaijinx* · · Score: 1

      If size compression was your number one concern, you could always just use Lynx ^^. Of course, Phoenix, errm, sorry, firebird, is pretty damn small for being a full fledged browser. Not to say that there isn't room for improvement, but I'd say it's about as small of a full fledged browser as you'll find. Course, there is the less popular K-meleon browser (same enginge), but it ends up being 11-12 megs with all the standard plugins. So, if you were to choose not to install the plug-ins (do you really need them at school), K-meleon might be a nice alternative.

      --
      YOU SUCK BALLS!
    3. Re:a great compact browser by fiftyfly · · Score: 1

      pffft. links -g & quit yer bellyachin'. The size is not an issue.

      --
      "Sanity is not statistical", George Orwell, "1984"
    4. Re:a great compact browser by critter_hunter · · Score: 1

      Err.. Opera 6 is around 4 MB, total. Opera 7 probably isn't a whole lot bigger. Opera 7 runs pretty well on my old PC, 200MHz with 32 MB RAM, although it does have some problems with very large pages, or when opening too many pages at the same time. But overall, Opera is both very small and very fast, and it's rendering engine is pretty much on par with Gecko. Not to mention all the killer features, such as mouse gestures and keyboard navigation.

      --
      Karma: Could be worse (could be raining)
    5. Re:a great compact browser by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was going to post and make fun of you because there was no Lynx for windows nt, but then i found out there is

    6. Re:a great compact browser by Graspee_Leemoor · · Score: 1

      I have had problems with Opera 7 not blocking popups on a randomly selected website, "sharereactor.com", so I have gone back to phoenix (which I can call phoenix because it's 0.5) just in case at any stage in the future I decide I might want to visit sharereactor.com on a really regular basis...

      graspee

    7. Re:a great compact browser by colinramsay · · Score: 1

      While this clearly will compact the overall size of Firebird, it really doesn't achieve much as the time taken to launch the binary increases. I believe.

    8. Re:a great compact browser by downerad · · Score: 1

      Your post was great. Conclusion: Phoenix doesn't come with a spellchecker.

    9. Re:a great compact browser by 1010011010 · · Score: 1

      How did you get it down to 12MB? Version 0.5 is 28MB or so, unpacked.

      --
      Napster-to-go says "Fill and refill your compatible MP3 player", which is a lie. It's not MP3. It's WMA with DRM.
    10. Re:a great compact browser by 13Echo · · Score: 1

      Yes. The compressed file is 3-4 MB, but uncompressed, it is about 7 MB. So really, it's only a few MB smaller at best. It has the benefit of being built small from the ground up, while Phoenix is still having components stripped off of it and cut down.

    11. Re:a great compact browser by slimak · · Score: 1

      your confusing (and i'm not sure how) size [bytes] and launch speed [time].

    12. Re:a great compact browser by cymen · · Score: 1

      Except if that compressed binary is stored out on an overloaded student file server it might actually help!

    13. Re:a great compact browser by Strog · · Score: 1

      It takes time(cpu time, actual time, etc) to decompress the binary. A compressed binary will be smaller. This is how size and speed can relate in this senario.

    14. Re:a great compact browser by critter_hunter · · Score: 1

      Right-clicking on the Opera 6 folder and selecting "Properties" gave me a size of 4MB. Uncompressed. You're right that Opera 7 is around 7-8MB though.

      --
      Karma: Could be worse (could be raining)
    15. Re:a great compact browser by Effugas · · Score: 1

      The author of UPX is nigh-obsessed with CPU performance; LZO's indeed pretty insanely fast and he's got another algo that decompresses almost entirely in-place. So I wouldn't be surprised to see launch times decrease.

      --Dan

  4. Request. by numbski · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I love the Mozilla herd, but please do me a favor...

    Quit renaming all the browsers! Every time I recommend them to a friend or coworker, the name changes and they get confused. :(

    --

    Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).

    1. Re:Request. by Fnkmaster · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Okay, howzabout you ask everybody with a vaguely related product to stop threatening the Mozilla project with lawsuits, then they'll stop renaming their browsers.

    2. Re:Request. by Planesdragon · · Score: 3, Informative

      Quit renaming all the browsers! Every time I recommend them to a friend or coworker, the name changes and they get confused. :(

      You don't recommend them very much, do you?

      Netscape was "re-named" to Mozilla--which, in a way, is just publicizing the name it always had.

      "Gecko" has always been the Mozilla render engine.

      "Phoenix" stared out as "Phoenix" as "micro-Mozilla", and we've known for, oh, six months or so that it had to be re-named.

      Minotaur is almost brand'spankin' new--and every mention I've seen of it had "to be re-named to thunderbird" stamped on it.

    3. Re:Request. by numbski · · Score: 0, Offtopic
      Jesus of Nazareth did not die so we could enjoy eggs and chocolate bunnies!


      Sure he did. That, and to save us from our sins, but who's sparing the details?

      --

      Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).

    4. Re:Request. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then why exactly did he die, Mr. Smartypants?

    5. Re:Request. by Malcontent · · Score: 0, Troll

      Because everybody dies.

      --

      War is necrophilia.

    6. Re:Request. by Your+Pal+Dave · · Score: 1

      Well duh!

      Because when he rolled away the stone and came out from that cave, he saw his shadow and there were six more weeks of winter.

    7. Re:Request. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Netscape was "re-named" to Mozilla--which, in a way, is just publicizing the name it always had.

      No, mozilla was the codename for the product (and also their mascot). Everybody called it Netscape, even web developers.

      "Gecko" has always been the Mozilla render engine.

      Yes and no, depending on which context you mean it. Gecko wasn't the Netscape 4.x render engine. It originated after the source release. It became the rendering engine of the software now known as mozilla after the decision was made to scrap the existing code and rewrite from scratch.

    8. Re:Request. by Goth+Biker+Babe · · Score: 1

      Jesus of Nazareth did not die so we could enjoy eggs and chocolate bunnies!

      No he died so that christians could usurp a perfectly good pagan spring time festival. Eggs, bunnies, and spring flowers are fine examples of birth and rebirth. I for one love watching my garden/yard resurect itself around this time.

    9. Re:Request. by henben · · Score: 3, Interesting
      "Chimera" was also just renamed to Camino.

      I think there's a need for a "naming software projects HOWTO", covering:

      1. How to choose a name that won't be taken off you within a year
      2. How to choose a name that won't hinder acceptance by some users (I'm looking at you, BitchX).
      3. How to choose a name that's Googleable (and not something like, say, There).
    10. Re:Request. by spyderbyte23 · · Score: 1
      How to choose a name that won't hinder acceptance by some users (I'm looking at you, BitchX)
      Don't forget their default /quit messages.

      CuteFluffyBunny has left #adorable(BX: Silly faggot! Dicks are for chicks!)

      I changed mine to read "BitchX: Great software by ignorant homophobes." (I've since switched to irssi.)

      --
      -- Support Ometz le-Serev.
    11. Re:Request. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What good is faith when you wait till there's proof?

      Aside from that, two monks actually caught the shroud on fire about the mid-11th century. This is thought to be why it dates no further back than this. If we could take a patch out of the middle of it for dating, instead of off the corner, then we might get some where. Of course, this isn't going to happen.

    12. Re:Request. by Planesdragon · · Score: 1

      No he died so that christians could usurp a perfectly good pagan spring time festival [prohosting.com]. Eggs, bunnies, and spring flowers are fine examples of birth and rebirth. I for one love watching my garden/yard resurect itself around this time.

      No, he died to end his life, which was a fine and perfect life.

      His PREISTS co-opted beltane, and sahwain, and yule (feel free to corret me on the names) to make it easier for the unwashed going-to-hell masses to convert.

      We've recently realized that, maybe, not everyone who isn't Christian isn't doomed to eternal suffering and damnation, so our previous furor for conversion died off. Please don't be made at us--we really, really, really did think that you were going to suffer, and we're in the theological position of apologizing to a pedestrian who we THOUGHT was about to be hit by a bus, so we knocked her down and accidentially broke her leg in our zeal to save her life.

      Hope you enjoy the garden, to boot. :)

    13. Re:Request. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey! Everybody with a vaguely related product! Can you stop threatening the Mozilla project with lawsuits?

      (There. We can end the renaming.)

    14. Re:Request. by Eskarel · · Score: 1

      Or maybe Mozilla could stop giving their products names which are the same as vaguely related products. Of course that would mean giving up coolness for stability and we we wouldn't want to do that would we?

    15. Re:Request. by AKAImBatman · · Score: 1

      Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen - Hebrews 11:1

    16. Re:Request. by Fnkmaster · · Score: 1

      That's what they just did. Anyone who's been tracking the process knows they have been delaying this announcement for over a month to give their lawyers time to okay it, so that the name would be stable from now on. So in fact, what you propose is exactly what the Phoenix developers wanted to do. Also note that Mozilla didn't "give" a product a name, a small group of developers, some of whom are part of the Mozilla organization umbrella, started a new browser project to replace the old clunky turd that is Mozilla - they did not know at the time that Phoenix the BIOS company was planning on launching BIOS-embedded web browsing technology, and understandably, this small group of developers didn't go and employ a team of lawyers to research this up front - it didn't make sense to do that until it became clear that Phoenix was a growing, successful project that was going to become the new Mozilla browser core - and when they went from that "early prototype" stage to a project more in the public eye, they changed the project name to something that would withstand legal scrutiny and not infringe any trademarks. What more could we really ask for from them?

    17. Re:Request. by Eskarel · · Score: 1

      My comment was meant more as a joke than seriously, though you could argue that since there appears to be at least another OSS product with the firebird moniker(though it's not a web browser), that they didn't do a very good job of researching things. All in all I'm a big fan of phoenix and minotaur(well firebird and thunderbird now I suppose). I just started using phoenix and am really enjoying it's fast start and smooth features as well as the easily installable extension. Minotaur is of course less exciting so far, but considering it's a pre .1 version release, it shows a great deal of potential.

    18. Re:Request. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well dicks are for chicks.
      Knowing that doesn't make one afraid of homos.

    19. Re:Request. by LetterJ · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Here are the beginnings of such a HOWTO

      If the name you're thinking of is directly pulled from a scifi or fantasy source, don't bother. These sources are WAY overrepresented as naming sources in software. Not only are your chances of coming up with something original pretty small, most of the names of characters and places in scifi are trademarked and you run the risk of being sued.

      If the name you're thinking of comes straight from Greek, Roman or Norse mythology, try again. We've got more than enough mail related software called variations of "Mercury".

      Run your proposed name through Google. The fewer results you get the better. If you get down to no results, you're there.

      Don't try to get a unique name by just slightly misspelling something. Calling your new Windows filesystem program Phat32 is just going to end up with users getting frustrated looking at the results of "fat32" in a search engine.

      If your name couldn't be said on TV in the 50s or 60s, you're probably on the wrong track. This is particularly true if you would like anyone to use your product in a work environment. No one is going to recommend a product to their co-workers if they can get sued for sexual harassment just for uttering its name.

      If your product name can't be pronounced at all, you'll get no word of mouth benefit at all. Similarly, if no one knows how to pronounce it, they will not be very likely to try to say it out loud to ask questions about it, etc. How do YOU say MySQL? PostgreSQL? GNU? Almost all spoken languages on Earth are based on consonant/vowel syllables of some sort. Alternating between consonants and vowels is a pretty good way to ensure that someone can pronounce it.

      The shorter the better.

      See if the .com domain is available. If it's not, it's a pretty good indicator that someone has already thought of it and is using it or closer to using it than you are. Do this even if you don't intend to use the domain.

      Don't build inherent limitations on your product into the name. Calling your product LinProduct or WinProduct precludes you from ever releasing any sort of cross-platform edition.

      Don't use your own name for open source products. If the project lives on beyond your involvement, the project will either have to be renames or your name may be used in ways you didn't intend.

      I'll put this up at phpgeek.com to build it up more.

    20. Re:Request. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      last I heard the male of the species is the one with the penis, so logically they are for males.

    21. Re:Request. by atam · · Score: 1

      I pronounce MySQL as My Sequel. I think almost everyone working with SQL products pronounces SQL as Sequel (e.g. MS SQL Server as Sequel Server, etc). I mean even though the name is in one word, there is nothing stopping you to say it in two words.

    22. Re:Request. by Goth+Biker+Babe · · Score: 1

      Sorry I was a little harsh. I like your analogy.

      Bright blessings.
      GBB

    23. Re:Request. by trons · · Score: 1

      Oh yeah, great idea, why did they change one of the names to Firebird then? Never heard of the database? (http://www.firebirdsql.org/)

  5. I was really hoping... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It would be Mercury and Thunderbird, but then Ford might get all upset.

  6. in other news by Breakfast+Pants · · Score: 1

    openoffice has been renamed el camino. FART.

    --

    --

    WHO ATE MY BREAKFAST PANTS?
    1. Re:in other news by scrod · · Score: 1

      Right. As numbski mentioned, Chimera is now Camino.

    2. Re:In other news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Please read up on C syntax.

      KTHXBI

  7. Bloody Codenames! by mungeh · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Why do software (and hardware) developers feel they need to change the names of their products when they finish them? Just to confuse us? Please there must be someone who can clarify this! I see it time and time again, paticularly with CPUs: Clawhammer, Sledgehammer, Northwood... Not to mention Longhorn, *insert some other codenamed thingy here*

    1. Re:Bloody Codenames! by be-fan · · Score: 1

      A codename is cool, something the engineers can throw around while they are developing it. A final product is a dumb POS dreamed up by marketing morons to cater to their vision of what the public wants.

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
    2. Re:Bloody Codenames! by mungeh · · Score: 1

      they can throw it around? Obviously they do this a lot... sort of defies the purpose of a codename though (to hide what they're talking about) but everyone always seems to knows what these codenames mean before the final product is out, probably from the engineers 'throwing it around' while they're developing it?
      I nearly like codenames, but it gets confusing when I tell my *lame* friends to wait for the Clawhammer to come out before they upgrade as
      1) it's not out and
      2) it wont be called clawhammer when it does come out.

    3. Re:Bloody Codenames! by deadsaijinx* · · Score: 3, Informative

      because there was some copyright problem with Pheonix (taken by someone else, don't remember whom though).

      What your talking about though is codenames. Those are supposed to change once the product is released. Excuse me if i'm wrong, but Pheonix wasn't a code name, It was a product name.

      --
      YOU SUCK BALLS!
    4. Re:Bloody Codenames! by mungeh · · Score: 1

      Oh, I stand corrected.
      Maybe I'm OT?

    5. Re:Bloody Codenames! by uhmmmm · · Score: 5, Informative

      Phoenix was renamed to avoid potential legal problems from Phoenix BIOS.

    6. Re:Bloody Codenames! by mungeh · · Score: 1

      Maybe they should've said that in the original news post?
      I for one had no idea _why_ they had renamed. Maybe i'm just a dumbass?

    7. Re:Bloody Codenames! by Art+Tatum · · Score: 2, Informative
      The problems with Phoenix are Trademark related. The BIOS manufacturer called 'Phoenix' is releasing a web-browser built in to their BIOSes (though their browser is *not* called Phoenix) and got all huffy because there was an open source browser called Phoenix already. So they threatened to sue/torture/beat the shit out of the Phoenix team unless they changed the name.

      Something similar happened with the Chimera browser too, I think.

    8. Re:Bloody Codenames! by saskboy · · Score: 1

      I think they have to give it a real proper name.

      I mean, are you going to remember what "Browser 8472" would mean?

      --
      Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
    9. Re:Bloody Codenames! by chunkwhite86 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Northwood... Not to mention Longhorn

      These names are getting cruder and cruder... Pretty soon we will see the new "Largenuts" northbridge and the "Bigcock" processor to go with it.

      Maybe it's just me that's getting cruder? ... Nah.

      --
      I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
    10. Re:Bloody Codenames! by mkldev · · Score: 1
      Heh. Chimera. I remember running that on a PowerMac 7600 back in about 1996 under MkLinux.... Oh wait, you mean there was another open source browser named Chimera that runs on the Mac? Sheesh.

      --
      120 character sigs suck. Make it 250.
    11. Re:Bloody Codenames! by Malc · · Score: 1

      Isn't it an embedded browser?

    12. Re:Bloody Codenames! by HBI · · Score: 1

      Microsoft should be honest and use codenames like "bunghole" or "anilingus" for their new products.

      --
      HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
    13. Re:Bloody Codenames! by derF024 · · Score: 1

      Northwood... Not to mention Longhorn

      These names are getting cruder and cruder...


      yea, those canadians are really crude, with their crazy names like Whistler, blackcomb and Longhorn

    14. Re:Bloody Codenames! by be-fan · · Score: 1

      By "throw it around" I mean to each other while they're developing it. Amongst themselves, they probably don't call it the stupid names that the final products come out with.

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
    15. Re:Bloody Codenames! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Watch out -- occassionally those "cool" codenames actually get applied to the final product, causing end lusers to scratch their heads while the marketing morons watch the product gather dust on the shelves.

      Classic examples: OS/2 "Warp", Lotus "Domino", and, er, "Mozilla".

    16. Re:Bloody Codenames! by jonwil · · Score: 1

      not to mention Borland Delphi. Delphi was origonally a codename before it became the final product name

    17. Re:Bloody Codenames! by Moonshadow · · Score: 2, Informative

      Speaking of Borland, what about the OSS fork of the Interbase database? It's named Firebird. I could see this becoming a bit of a problem. At least there wasn't any desktop-level software already called Phoenix, particularly OSS software.

      We use both Firebird and Phoenix at the office. Now, we're gonna have to start calling them "Open Interbase" and "Mozilla Junior" or something.

    18. Re:Bloody Codenames! by p00ya · · Score: 1
      ... and the "Bigcock" processor to go with it.

      Sledgehammer too far out of your legion?
    19. Re:Bloody Codenames! by kasperd · · Score: 1

      Maybe they should've said that in the original news post?

      They should have said that. I think all those renaming of projects are stupid. And I still wonder why they had to rename the projects. It is not like that BIOS vendor invented the word.

      --

      Do you care about the security of your wireless mouse?
    20. Re:Bloody Codenames! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not for the name clash with the BIOS. It's because Phoenix also has (had?) a browser project, and that made for one too many browsers with the name Phoenix.

    21. Re:Bloody Codenames! by MoonBuggy · · Score: 1

      Unfortunately I see no reason why the situation with the Firebird database (or whatever it is) should be any different. Anyone care to explain?

    22. Re:Bloody Codenames! by Greg+W. · · Score: 1

      Yeah, that always struck me as a bit odd. I remember using Chimera on Ultrix back in 1995 or so. Then suddenly last year someone did a Mac-only browser based on Mozilla, and called it "Chimera", and nobody but me seemed to know there was a conflict. :(

      I'm glad to see I'm not alone, though. It makes me feel a bit less ancient.

    23. Re:Bloody Codenames! by KAMiKAZOW · · Score: 1

      because there was some copyright problem with Pheonix (taken by someone else, don't remember whom though).

      It's Phoenix Technologies. They do also offer an embedded web browser.

    24. Re:Bloody Codenames! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey, those Canadians can Moose Jaw on my Medicine Hat any time.

    25. Re:Bloody Codenames! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Phoenix BIOS has a browser which doesn't require an os. That was the conflict.

    26. Re:Bloody Codenames! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do they have a browser like the (apparently) phoenix bios does?

    27. Re:Bloody Codenames! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Perhaps not now, but apparently they can make one in the future and force Firebird(Mozilla) to change their name.

    28. Re:Bloody Codenames! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      they should name it Cockle or DuckButter.

  8. What about... by kruetz · · Score: 3, Funny

    Firenerd and Thundernerd? Seems kinda fitting, don't you think?

    And we can call the IRC client ChunderWord, because that's basically the point of IRC chat.

    (to "chunder" is to vomit)

    --

    This sig intentionally left bla... dammit!
    Who's got the whiteout?
    1. Re:What about... by zCyl · · Score: 4, Funny

      Firenerd and Thundernerd?

      Do you really think we need more subliminal suggestions of "Firenerd" in this economy?

    2. Re:What about... by chunkwhite86 · · Score: 0, Redundant

      (to "chunder" is to vomit)

      What, you mean like This?

      --
      I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
    3. Re:What about... by matvei · · Score: 1
      Firenerd and Thundernerd? Seems kinda fitting, don't you think?

      I don't care as long as they keep using the Geeko layout engine.

    4. Re:What about... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!
      good one!!

    5. Re:What about... by KwisatzHaderach · · Score: 1

      Naaaa, The IRC client is an IROC, naturally.

    6. Re:What about... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      common, common, you motherfucker on fire

    7. Re:What about... by vrza · · Score: 1

      (to "chunder" is to vomit) "Living in the land Down Under
      Where beer does flow and men chunder"

  9. Unity in the product line by El+Cubano · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I think this is good. It will give user a theme they can identify with (especially if all the mozilla derivatives follow the convention).

    But I guess they already had a theme going with fantasy creatures to begin with. I wonder where it will go.

    1. Re:Unity in the product line by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Succubus maybe?

    2. Re:Unity in the product line by mebert · · Score: 1

      I'm waiting for the one called Balrog.

      --
      I John 4:7-8
    3. Re:Unity in the product line by darien · · Score: 1

      Wasn't that the internal IBM codename for MCA?

  10. Re:Umm... by deadsaijinx* · · Score: 1

    Probably because there was a rather odd debacle over the name Pheonix being taken and the team being forced to change it. Of course, the name firebird isn't all that different than pheonix ^^ but thats what they were going for. And, if most people are like me, they have been curious to find out the new name of Pheonix, err.. sorry, Firebird (i say pheonix sounded better).
    Course, it might just be a slow news day ^^ (j/k).
    Either way, the editors do have a strange notion of what constitutes as news, but who am I to complain. Or an AC for that matter.

    --
    YOU SUCK BALLS!
  11. "Phoenix" joins the Browser Relocation Program by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    After numerous attempts on it's life by the Microsoft mafia family, Phoenix is being given a new name and identity an an undisclosed website in the hopes of protecting it.

  12. No.... by numbski · · Score: 1

    That's the mac version of Phoenix, or rather it's equivalent.

    --

    Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).

  13. well by BigBir3d · · Score: 1

    at least i know the mozilla folks are good ol' american iron car lovin' types (GM even)...

    camino

    firebird

  14. Good joke. by Breakfast+Pants · · Score: 1

    Not. FART.

    --

    --

    WHO ATE MY BREAKFAST PANTS?
    1. Re:Good joke. by numbski · · Score: 1

      Too bad I'm not kidding.

      --

      Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).

  15. They had to rename Phoenix by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It wasn't just some codename. Phoenix is already being used by another browser, so a new name was necessary.

    1. Re:They had to rename Phoenix by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I thought it was PhoenixBios that was complaining. Because they decided they wanted to do some browser like things, and decided they could push an already existing product out of the market.

  16. Chimera renamed to Camino by krisp · · Score: 5, Informative

    You'll also notice that the Mozilla team's MacOS X browser has been renamed Camino. Cars are definatly in style for them.

    1. Re:Chimera renamed to Camino by cant_get_a_good_nick · · Score: 4, Funny

      Obligatory bad "That 70's Show" reference.

      Kelso:
      But it's an El Camino! Thats Spanish for "The Camino!"

    2. Re:Chimera renamed to Camino by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      mod parent down. Unfunny joke. Doesn't it kind of remind you of Chris Farley's explanation of El Nino on SNL?

    3. Re:Chimera renamed to Camino by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      You'll also notice that the Mozilla team's MacOS X browser has been renamed Camino [mozilla.org]. Cars are definatly in style for them.

      So, instead of some computer company, the Mozilla team will get sued by Ford and GM for ripping off car names?

  17. "Firebird" is also taken by Frater+219 · · Score: 5, Informative
    Firebird is also taken as an open-source project name. It is an SQL DBMS (database system) founded on Borland InterBase. It's actually supposed to be a fast and reliable DBMS -- possibly even more so than PostgreSQL.

    These folks must not have looked very hard if they thought "Firebird" was a name with no conflicts in the open-source world. Firebird SQL is on SourceForge, a pretty obvious place to look.

    1. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Naming conflicts in the open-source world was not the issue that forced the Phoenix -> Firebird change: Phoenix technologies,who also produced a browser product, owned the trademark on 'phoenix'.

      As for a quasi-obscure DB? I think that a server side app and a web browser are easily differentiable. You can't download a database to view web pages and you can't do SELECTs on a web browser. And afaik they don't own the trademark. So I really don't think that it's that significant of a change.

    2. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by Fnkmaster · · Score: 2, Informative

      They knew perfectly well about other products that use the name Firebird, it's just that they aren't relevant to the domain of web browsing software. Trademark law only grants protection over a certain domain - and Mozilla/Netscape had their lawyers spend several weeks giving the new names a thorough checking-out prior to announcing them.

    3. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by molarmass192 · · Score: 1

      Good point, how about Dart, Duster, or Camero ... all timeless mullet rides and I *think* still unclaimed, at least so far as software goes. I'm kinda partial towards Duster myself!

      --

      Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws-Plato
    4. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by molarmass192 · · Score: 1

      typo ... make that Camaro not Camero!

      --

      Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws-Plato
    5. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by leviramsey · · Score: 1

      Not to mention Barracuda...

      "Hey, that thing got a Hemi?"

    6. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by Scaba · · Score: 5, Funny
      You can't download a database to view web pages and you can't do SELECTs on a web browser.

      Speak for yourself.

    7. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by asa · · Score: 5, Informative

      These folks must not have looked very hard if they thought "Firebird" was a name with no conflicts

      Mozilla's Firebird browser isn't going to be confused with a relational database. Trademark onflicts only arise when there is customer confusion.

      --Asa

    8. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Cool, so i can make a relational database and call it Netscape?

    9. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by mrscorpio · · Score: 1

      But why would there be customer confusion between a BIOS and a browser, then?

      Chris

    10. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by QuantumET · · Score: 3, Informative

      Because that's not the problem.
      There's a company that makes a web-browser called Phoenix, I believe for embedded systems.

    11. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They knew perfectly well about other products that use the name Firebird, it's just that they aren't relevant to the domain of web browsing software. Trademark law only grants protection over a certain domain - and Mozilla/Netscape had their lawyers spend several weeks giving the new names a thorough checking-out prior to announcing them.

      What makes you think this is about trademarks? How about just being a decent human being and not commandeering someone else's name. What, were none x-teen billion english words that weren't already being used not good enough?

      The Firebird database should rename itself to Mozilla, just to drive the point home to all of the people who fail to understand why this is uncool.

    12. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by GroovBird · · Score: 3, Interesting

      That's right, and get this:

      The company that primarily exists to support and improve Firebird and which employs many ex-Borland people (including the inventor of Interbase) is called IBPhoenix.

      Dave

    13. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by Narcissus · · Score: 2, Interesting

      That's true, it won't be, but who is really treading on whose toes in this whole Phoenix issue? Phoenix make a BIOS, and along comes a browser named Phoenix. Let's face it, there's a better chance of accidentally installing a relational database instead of the intended browser than installing a BIOS instead of the browser.

      Now along comes Phoenix, and decide they're going to write a browser, and so get shitty that the name is already used. It was out of their domain, a different domain, and now that they're going into this new domain, they should have to deal with what's already there.

      Compare this to the whole Apple music thing that's going on. Isn't this really like Apple (the software company) moving into the music domain and forcing Apple (the music company) to change their name?

    14. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Actually, it's the same one:
      http://www.phoenix.com/en/solutions/connect/ firstv iew+connect/

    15. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by Phoinix · · Score: 1

      Have you thought of using the "Greek" term Phoinix?

      If using that one is not possible, and we need to make use of our feathery friends, try using "FireChick" in reference to a smaller bird...

    16. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by WWWWolf · · Score: 1

      For as long as I remember I have had /usr/bin/omega (TeX macro package almost two people use) and /usr/games/omega (Roguelike game - apparently in Debian called omega-rpg).

      There's also Jack the CD ripper and Jack the low-latency audio API.

      So so what if there's a Firebird and a Firebird. I'm sure they can both be packaged without too many conflicts =)

    17. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by rembo · · Score: 1

      Well,

      I would prefer that they don't call it firebird. It is hard these days to ask a question about gentoo on irc, and then you have to explain you mean the file manager.

      I use firebird myself, and I swear by it. It is very easy to install, it's portable, it can be embedded in commercial applications for free.

      From a technical perspective it's has many features mysql doesn't have. not trolling here, I need them, they are referential integrity, transactions and subqueries.

      Only thing that I find missing a bit are some tools to work with it on linux. There are many windows tool though. But I guess that's natural for a project which hasn't been open sourced that long.

    18. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by flurdy · · Score: 0


      I am going to have the same problem as comment 5734348
      I have already had to explain to my boss that we will be using two firebird products.

      The Firbird ( the database..) newsgroups seems be busy with some very miffed people.
      I Dont Blame them.

      Yes, they may not be in direct competition, and hence less trademark issues,
      but why slap another great open source project in the face ?

      Or is AOL/Netscape corporate people who is pushing this through as they think they can do
      what they like as they have better lawyers than the proper firebird people ?

      --
      My other Sig is very funny.
    19. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by Graspee_Leemoor · · Score: 1

      It's a wonder people don't get confused with all those millions of win32 apps which are all called "Windows" something.

      graspee

    20. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by dybdahl · · Score: 0, Redundant

      Renaming Phoenix to Firebird would be like renaming MySQL to Konqueror. This makes no sense at all, and seems very destructive to a fellow Open Source project.

      I sincerely hope that the Phoenix team finds another name than Firebird.

      Lars Dybdahl

    21. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by gilesjuk · · Score: 2, Informative

      It was also the name of an 8-bit game company.

      I might knock up a Firebird software theme :)

    22. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by Bluefirebird · · Score: 1

      Just my luck!
      Firebird is one of my first nicknames, even before I started using the Internet.
      After that I found out there was a car with that name, and now they are naming it a browser.
      I can tell you that there are many things named Firebird, so it's not really a good name.
      In google there are about 675,000 hits.
      Maybe they should name it YaF (yet another firebird).

      --

      Fear is the mind-killer.

    23. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by RPoet · · Score: 2, Funny

      Actually, it seems the only remaining free names are "testsicles" and "popplers".

      --
      "Oppression and harassment is a small price to pay to live in the land of the free." -- Montgomery Burns.
    24. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's nothing, my new P2P app is gonna be called RIAA. The network engine and related libs are gonna be called AOL/Time Warner - don't ask me why I just think the name is highly suited to these specfic components.

    25. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by rbolkey · · Score: 1

      Really!! I found the kitchen sink in mozilla, where is this feature hidden?

    26. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by lsces · · Score: 1

      The problem I have as a systems engineer is that I have A Firebird Database, which uses a Firebird Database Browser ( FirebirdExplorer ) and currently accesses Netscape to display the html help manual. I had planned on a swicth to Mozilla for the help browser, but...
      Also in the pipeline on Firebird are various add-ons that serve up information direct to an html browser.

      NO CONFLICT?????

      --
      Lester Caine L.S.Caine Electronic Services Broadway, UK
    27. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What about when people try to google up Firebird for FAQ's, docs and the like? Will they have to type 'Firebird browser' or better 'browser formally known as Mozilla / Phoenix'?

    28. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Asa,

      While you or I would not confuse the browser from the database, there are countless others who will.

      Further, given that Mozilla will be the more pervasive product to be installed, by changing your name to Firebird, you are condeming the Firebird SQL database project to field countless "where do I download the browser?" and other related support questions forever!!!

      As far as I'm concerned this is not a problem of trademark issue (although I think a strong argument could be made that the name will introduce confusion), the issue is that Mozilla has chosen "Firebird" in conflict with another opensource project.

      Further, no-one from the Mozilla project approach the Firebird SQL project to discuss the possible ramifications!!!

      This suggest that the Mozilla project is not concerned about open source (and the related projects) but it's own needs.

      Sean Leyne (seanleyne@users.sourceforge.net)
      Firebird SQL Project Admin (one of many)

    29. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ikke vær tåpelig. Analogien din holder ikke, siden det ligger i navnet "MySQL" at det er en relasjonsdatabase, mens "Phoenix" er temmelig ubestemmelig. Moreover, koblingen "Phoenix" => "Firebird" følger fugletheminga naturlig. En mulig løsning ville vært å spesifisere navnene til alle produkter som heter Firebird, akkurat som man har MS Office, Corel Office, Lotus Office, kunne man hatt Firebird Web, Firebird RDBS eller tilsvarende.

    30. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by schwatoo · · Score: 1

      And if I remember right Firebird was owned by British Telecom who also own patents on hypertext links. Maybe they need another new name for Phoenix.

      --
      I have trouble with passwords among other things.
    31. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, you don't need to register a trade-mark to own it. Using it is enough to give you protection (as long as you can establish the date you started using the mark in association with certain wares and services). If you're going to talk about law and you know nothing about it then put a disclaimer somewhere. By the way, I'm NOT a lawyer but I've studied Intellectual Property Law so I know how trademarks work.

    32. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by bsstmiller · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Quasi-obscure to whom? You mean the millions of programmers that use Borland products? Obviously you are not a programmer! If you don't think you login in to a database from a browser. Better tell Oracle Finacials, People Soft, JD Edwards, SAP, etc. they need to change there products radically. The name is taken and by a friendly open source group. How hard was it to search sourceforge???

    33. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by nelsonal · · Score: 2, Funny

      However both features will be included in the next release of Emacs.

      --
      Degaussing scares the bad magnetism out of the monitor and fills it with good karma.
    34. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Technically you can do that but the issue is a lot more complicated then that (as anything that involves law). I'm not a lawyer but I have taken Intellectual Property Law courses so I'll try to explain this to the best of my ability (by the way this is the Canadian version, though the rules are very similar in the US).

      There are a few things that the Trademarks Office and a court of law look at when dealing with trademarks:

      1) the inherent distinctiveness of the trade-mark and the extent to wich they have become known;

      2) the length of time the trade-mark has been in use;

      3) the nature of the wares, services, or business;

      4) the nature of the trade; and

      5) the degree of resenblance between the trade-marks in appearance or sound or in the ideas suggested by them.

      Now the problem is that Netscape is a very famous mark so it will create a world of trouble. For one the trade-mark is very distinctive due to the fact that it's famous. It's been used for quite a few years in association with the web browser. Though the nature of the wares and services is different it will most likely not outway the distinctiveness of the name. A judge would also look at your intent on using the Netscape name. Because the name is famous it would be reason enough to believe that you want to use the reputation that Netscape Corp has built for the mark. Now that's a very very simplified version of an explanation and is by no means legal advice so please don't flame me for making mistakes (I did tell you that there might be a difference between Canadian and American trademark law).

    35. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You should inform yourself before you open your mouth. Phoenix asked the Mozilla people to change the name because they make an embedded browser for their BIOSes that is called Phoenix. A web browser and an embedded web browser...mmm, do we see something similar. Yes, there would be confusion here my friend.

    36. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by Alien+Being · · Score: 1

      And Roadrunner a.k.a. "velocitus
      incredibilis".

      Beep Beep.

    37. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by bsstmiller · · Score: 1

      I guess they just don't give a sh!t about other open source projects. This is very bad for the Firebird community (the database). It will probably be bad for Mozilla too (the browser software). This was a stupid decision!!!!

    38. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by Drakonian · · Score: 1

      I'd say a web browser has more in common with a server side database than with a BIOS company.

      --
      Random is the New Order.
    39. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by bwt · · Score: 1

      Mozilla's Firebird browser isn't going to be confused with a relational database. Trademark onflicts only arise when there is customer confusion.

      I doubt that the people at the Firebird project will see it that way. What is Phoenix/Firebird going to do when they trademark their name (if they haven't done so yet).

      It is VERY UNCOOL of Phoenix to pick "Firebird" as a name, because it is taken in the open source world. If I was working on the Firebird RDBMS, I'd be pissed.

    40. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by pacman+on+prozac · · Score: 1

      you can if its emacs :>

      *ducks*

    41. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by Ian+Jefferies · · Score: 1

      Each one got a thorough googling I'm sure :)

      --
      A physicist is an atom's way of thinking about atoms
    42. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by dezoe · · Score: 1

      [...]you can't do SELECTs on a web browser.
      ..but I can do INSERT

    43. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by gilesjuk · · Score: 1

      Was owned, I don't know what happened to them. Firebird spawned Rainbird. I remember Rainbird released Starglider and the programmer of that Jez San formed Argonaut.

    44. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by Fnkmaster · · Score: 1
      What makes me think this is about trademarks? Well, because I read the Phoenix discussion forums on MozillaZine and I keep track of what the Phoenix developers and drivers have discussed there. Their motivation for renaming the project was purely out of concern for complying with trademark law. They chose a name that was aesthetically pleasing, as similar as possible in concept to the original name, and legally sound within the bounds of trademark law.


      If you are suggesting the name will result in confusion between Firebird SQL and the Firebird browser, you have the right to your opinion. I was simply pointing out that the existance of the Firebird RDBMS has been mentioned and discussed on the Phoenix forums, so clearly the Mozilla.org lawyers were aware of it, and thus they didn't consider this to be a legal issue. If you consider that rights to a name should be more far-reaching than that, that's fine, but most of us don't consider it to be "commandeering" a name, since any common, decent-sounding English word you can think of will likely have been used as a name for some product at some point in time - the question is how different do products have to be for it to be acceptable, and the best guide we have for that is the law.

    45. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by Iffy+Bonzoolie · · Score: 1

      Yeah, just because it's legal to take the name, doesn't mean it's considerate/nice/responsible to do so. It also has to be one of the most unoriginal names for ANYTHING, no offense to either project.

      -If

      --
      Run a pencil-and-paper RPG campaign with your far-off friends: Gametable!
    46. Re:"Firebird" is also taken by Narcissus · · Score: 1

      Sorry mate, but I believe I was informed. Did I not mention the whole Phoenix BIOS / browser thing? But you make it sound like the embedded browser existed before the Mozilla-based browser known as Phoenix.

      What I said was that if you come into a market (eg. web browsers) which is what the Phoenix company is doing (they were in the BIOS market beforehand) then you cannot force a name change that's already established in that market.

      The 'Apple' debate has finished, and I restate what I said earlier: if the computer company came into the music industry now, they could not force the music company to change their name, could they?

      No. Different markets, same name. What your problem is is that you are missing the point that Phoenix are now coming into a new market: web browsers. BIOS software and web browsing software (whether embedded in the BIOS or not) are different markets.

      This would be like whoever made the Phoenix car deciding they were going to embed a computer in the vehicle, and force Phoenix to change their name because now they are making BIOS code alongside the vehicle.

  18. In other news... by chunkwhite86 · · Score: 5, Funny

    The Evolution(tm) Mail client will be renamed "Camaro", while the Abiword is skipping the subtle but amusing titles and jumping right into it with their latest release, codenamed "WhiteTrash"

    --
    I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
    1. Re:In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, I am not sure why but if you install apache tomcat, it is refered to as catalina.

    2. Re:In other news... by BlueGecko · · Score: 1
      c and Emacs was renamed Pontiac Catalina.
      If you're going to try to argue that EMACS is anything less than one of those six-wheeler mobile home, bud, you're in for a fight....
    3. Re:In other news... by scharkalvin · · Score: 1

      MicroSoft has renamed Internet Explorer "Edsel"

    4. Re:In other news... by sharkey · · Score: 1
      If you're going to try to argue that EMACS is anything less than one of those six-wheeler mobile home, bud, you're in for a fight....

      It could be argued that a Pontiac Catalina is a six-wheel mobile home with 2 wheels removed. It's a big fucker. I had one in college, and by far it was the most comfortable car I have ever sat in, driven in, slept in, etc.

      --

      --
      "Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
    5. Re:In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey,

      I own a 1966 Pontiac Emacs and 1968 Pontiac small foot print web browser. I also own a 64 Bonneville, but it's just a car.

    6. Re:In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and VI was renamed VW

  19. Re:Umm... by smcpeek · · Score: 4, Interesting

    One issue I see right away is this "Firebird" is not the same as the one found in http://firebird.sourceforge.net/ which could be confusing to people looking for this Firebird (or confusing to the people looking for the other Firebird...)

  20. Firebird already taken? by Audent · · Score: 1

    http://firebird.sourceforge.net/

    given that Phoenix (go Phoenix, you rock) is changing its name because of a perceived conflict with some other non-browser stuff, isn't it ironic that Firebird is also already taken?

    --
    I am a leaf on the wind
    1. Re:Firebird already taken? by cant_get_a_good_nick · · Score: 1

      Superbirds always were my fave, much more than firebirds. Go Hemi Mopar!

    2. Re:Firebird already taken? by neurostar · · Score: 1

      mmmm... Dodge Charger RT/440 ('68 or '69)

    3. Re:Firebird already taken? by netdemonboberb · · Score: 1

      Nowadays, it seems you can't come up with any name that isn't already taken. I imagine that's why many car makers are now just giving their cars model numbers as opposed to real names.

      --

      Volunteer Mozilla developer, RPI Student.
    4. Re:Firebird already taken? by Sancho · · Score: 1

      As I recall, Phoenix wanted to expand BIOS functions to include some fairly basic services, including internet services. Thus their Phoenix trademark could apply to web browsers. This was in a story awhile back, but I can't find it now.

    5. Re:Firebird already taken? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No it isn't, just use your imagination and don't use normal English words as product names. It really shouldn't be that difficult.

      C'mon, seriously, the problem seems to be that the people in the Mozilla project are really bad at coming up with original names. With the exception of Mozilla, but I think that predates the folks who came up with things like Phoenix, Chimera (which was already taken by another web browser), Camino, Firebird, etc.

      These people are setting new records at coming up with unoriginal names.

    6. Re:Firebird already taken? by gerbache · · Score: 1

      I actually think the number/letter style of naming cars is more efficient for the consumer. The number generally corresponds to the size of the engine and the letter generally corresponds to the class of car, which I think makes more sense than some obscure name they came up with. I kinda wish more companies would go to using this convention, actually; it'd be much less confusing than trying to figure out which invented word is the name of a particular type of car.

  21. Car Theme by Matty_ · · Score: 1

    Now it all makes sense why Camino was chosen as the new name for Chimera.

  22. Wow! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    You people are so redneck and you don't even know it!

  23. Why... by numbski · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why oh why did the Macs get stuck with the sawed-off station wagon anyway? :P

    --

    Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).

    1. Re:Why... by cloudmaster · · Score: 1

      Camino is Spanish for Road. You're thinking of "El Camino" - which is a different thing entirely.

    2. Re:Why... by BigBir3d · · Score: 1

      no shit!

      jeeze... i guess i am not a car guy after all... must have been fooling myself for the last 2 decades...

      my point is this: why change from one used name to another? and why are they all automobile related? discontinued ones... yes. But why?

    3. Re:Why... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually it means "way."

    4. Re:Why... by cloudmaster · · Score: 1

      You must've been fooling yourself if you can possibly speak poorly about a pretty cool truck such as the El Camino. :) The Ranchero's not all that pretty, and the Dodge Rampage is ugly, but I'm pretty fond of the El Camino. I may be biased, having owned 3 of them (only 1 right now), but these's something inherently cool about being able to get the same power options as a Chevelle (mmm, 1970 LS6 454) in a body that weighs less, has a stronger frame, and can carry a good amount of cargo.

      Supposedly, Chevy's planning to bring the camaro back in a few years (a la Ford Thunderbird), and the firebird will likely come back at the same time. The El Camino is also possibly coming back the same way that the Pontiac GTO was reincarnated - by importing a Holden (GM Austrailia) car. Specifically, the Holden "Ute" is pretty likely to be the new US El Camino.

      To remain partially on-topic, I like the name "Camino" better anyway. Firebird is a car in most people's mind, but Camino probably means nothing to most. :)

  24. So... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I suppose Carlton International Media is going to sue them too, now?

  25. Why not Volvo XC90 or something? by netdemonboberb · · Score: 4, Funny

    Volvos are more classy than Thunderbirds and Firebirds.

    --

    Volunteer Mozilla developer, RPI Student.
    1. Re:Why not Volvo XC90 or something? by shut_up_man · · Score: 1

      Probably true... but do we really need Thundervolvo and Firevolvo?

    2. Re:Why not Volvo XC90 or something? by zurab · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Volvos are more classy than Thunderbirds

      Maybe, in the past, but new Thunderbird looks very nice, and is very classy. I'd take that over most Volvos.

    3. Re:Why not Volvo XC90 or something? by mahler3 · · Score: 1

      Yikes, would that turn all of us Phoenix users into Volvo Driving Soccer Moms?

      [Disclaimer: I drive a Volvo 240 wagon. Great for hauling windsurfing gear. Safety is what driver does, not what driver drives.]

    4. Re:Why not Volvo XC90 or something? by Annnoying+Coward · · Score: 1

      A Ford is a Ford is a Volvo. Been a few years now.

      I seem to recall that the new Thunderbird even shares the chassis (or platform, to be precise) with Volvo S60 (and Jaguar X-type and for Mondeo).

      --
      sigh
    5. Re:Why not Volvo XC90 or something? by cant_get_a_good_nick · · Score: 1

      True about X-Type and Mondeo being cousins. It's the only way you'll get a Mondeo in the US.

      I think the Thunderbird is based off the LS-6 platform, not Mondeo. Thunderbird is RWD, so's the LS6/LS8. Ford cheated with the X-Type by making it 4WD. If not, it would have beed the first FWD Jaguar, and really would have upset the loyalists.

    6. Re:Why not Volvo XC90 or something? by chunkwhite86 · · Score: 1

      Maybe, in the past, but new Thunderbird [fordvehicles.com] looks very nice, and is very classy. I'd take that over most Volvos.

      Certainly not the new S60R though. 300 hp, turbocharged engine, all wheel drive, and a very sexy body. The S60R is a badass especially for the price - mid 30's. mmmmmm....

      --
      I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
  26. Compress it with UPX by Phantasmo · · Score: 5, Informative

    Use UPX to compress phoenix.exe. I'm running one of the nightlies and I got it to go from 6.6MB to 2.7MB. It's not a lot of space, but it helps, and there's no decrease in speed.

    --

    The US Army: promoting democracy through unquestioned obedience
    1. Re:Compress it with UPX by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      don't spend all those 3.9MB on a single pr0n file!

    2. Re:Compress it with UPX by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, phoenix.exe may be compressed to 2.7 MB, but that isn't the whole thing: it also dlls and other stuff and including them, it takes about 7 MB when compressed.

    3. Re:Compress it with UPX by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can compress both the executables and dlls with upx.

  27. Reason for name change by djfumberger · · Score: 1

    The browser was renamed because of legal issues. I think phoenix the bios makers were the ones breathing down their neck. There some info on the site about it http://www.mozilla.org/projects/phoenix/

  28. Mozilla variants = Classic Cars. by mikedaisey · · Score: 1


    Now we have Firebirds and Caminos...is this going to become a trend?

    1. Re:Mozilla variants = Classic Cars. by arkane1234 · · Score: 1

      Now we have Firebirds and Caminos...is this going to become a trend?

      Probably...
      Just waiting for Mozilla's codebase to be sleeked down, given a supertight executable after compile, adding in custom register enhancments in the code, and access to the actual stream in real time. Then we can call it Capri XR2. Of course, it will only be available for 3 years, after which the Open Source community will disregard all calls for support of this product. At least in America... the Australian OSS community will continue to product patches and export them to America.

      (Obligatory reference to Ford/Mercury of America dropping dealer parts being made for the 91-94 Mercury Capri product line... but Ford of Australia continuing production of new parts.)

      --
      -- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
  29. Huh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Mozilla Lite" (Low Calories) was already taken?

  30. From the ashes of the fire by AlexMcCluskey · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I am the great AlexMcCluskey, and I shall rise again with the power of the Penis Bird!

  31. That's a great name... by hubbah · · Score: 1

    ... for finding out whether a lame monicker can kill a great browser.

    Hubbah

  32. Screenshots by teslatug · · Score: 2, Funny

    Here are a couple of screenshots:

    Firebird
    Thunderbird

  33. Why not.... by frodo+from+middle+ea · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Why not rename phoenix to "Internet Explorer", just to fuck with M$.
    After all "Internet Explorer" shouldn't be allowed to be a trademark in Internet industry, the same argument as Windows being a trademark ?
    Plus that way they can get totally clueless joe six-packs to download thinking they are upgrading their IE,
    Wow imagine the user base generated by that ?

    --
    for the last time people, I am "frodo from middle eaRTH", not "middle eaST".
    1. Re:Why not.... by tokaok · · Score: 1
      Wow i just downloaded IE lite, it sure is great, M$ i was wrong about you all along , heres my wallet and the keys to my house. i was so wrong about you.

      Thats what a winbloze users will start thinking. much to the chargrin of the FireMoze crew.

    2. Re:Why not.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why use one name when you can have both? The license won't stop you from copy-pasting Phoenix, doing some text-replaces and branding it as "Internet Explorer"...

    3. Re:Why not.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How about "Mozilla Source Internet Expedition" so you can keep the car theme, avoid any "Internet Explorer" trade mark issues, and still be MSIE.

    4. Re:Why not.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      winbloze ... ha ha that is clever... NOT

    5. Re:Why not.... by cant_get_a_good_nick · · Score: 1

      After all "Internet Explorer" shouldn't be allowed to be a trademark in Internet industry, the same argument as Windows being a trademark ?

      "Internet Explorer" actually was trademarked, but by someone else. Bill Gates had to argue that "Internet Explorer" was too generic to be trademarked yet also arguing in a different case that Windows was strong enough to warrant a trademark. I'm sure they've since bought out the trademark. I'd love for someone to claim the name, then get sued, and then use Bill Gates' own testimony against them.

      IANAL, but jokes aside, I'm sure MS has staked a strong claim on IE being a trademarkable name because of it's ubiquity. It wouldn't be open and shut, and if anyone wanted to try it, they'd have to have a lot of lawyers. Most opensource projects wouldn't have the cash, and most folks with the cash would lose more from angering Billy than they'd ever gain by spiting him.

  34. Just to be completely accurate... by QuasEye · · Score: 1
    the Phoenix was also a car that I have seen. On blocks. In someone's front yard.

    1. Re:Just to be completely accurate... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Those were probably the worst American car ever made, with something like 200 recall notices.

      Even better, they had a top speed of about 60mph, if you were going downhill. Which was actually a good thing, because the brakes were so substandard. They also leaked fuel and power steering fluid and tended to catch fire, generally not rising from the ashes afterward.

  35. In other news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    M$ has patented any names that start or end with BIRD.

    Ahem
    if (you cant beat them)
    {
    then buy them
    }
    else
    {
    buy birdie num num

    }

  36. More open source confusion by origin2k · · Score: 2

    Why would they name it the same as the open source relational database firebird project?

    Originally open sourced by Borland (commercial name interbase).

  37. NEW NAMES!!!! WHEEEE! by teamhasnoi · · Score: 1
    I love Phoenix,(since I'm still running some old win nightly), but when can I install on cluser's (clueless users) computers?

    I run phoenix on all my x86 machines, and Chimera on my mac, but damnit!

    The .5 release is incompatable with the new nightlies themes and extentions. The buttons don't work right, and the bookmark toolbar dies on every install. I believe the nightly I have has a mem leak, as it will get up to 60 megs, and I'll have to end the process.

    I can't spread the joy of Firebird until I *know* its going to work on their PCs. Wacky rendering is ok, but stabillity and working features are a must.

    And dear god, where is the installer that lets you choose the nightly you want, until .6 comes out?

    Whew. Sorry baby.

    I only yell 'cause I love ya, baby. You know that. Now go make me a Turkey pot pie!!

  38. Heck if they go for car names by lingqi · · Score: 1, Funny

    They should at least go for ones you can't pronounce! like all the ones from Lamborghini cars.

    Like, for example, Murcielago, which Car and Driver must have spent half a page telling people "This is how to pronounce this car's name."

    And then you have citeroen and peugeot, which is pervasive, but still not easy to pronounce (correctly).

    I mean, after commiting half an hour on the name alone, you are too invested (time wise) in the product to ever go anywhere else. I think that's how windows grab customers - by excruciating install processes. You invest the time in the install and don't really want to see that time "wasted" by going to another platform.

    we can one-up them by using up people's time at the name alone!

    ahem. so, anyway.

    --

    My life in the land of the rising sun.

    1. Re:Heck if they go for car names by kcbrown · · Score: 1
      And then you have citeroen and peugeot, which is pervasive, but still not easy to pronounce (correctly).

      Or spell, for that matter. :-)

      (You got Peugeot right, but the other is spelled "Citroën").

      --
      Use 'slashdot stuff' in the subject line in any email you send me if you want to get past the spam filter.
    2. Re:Heck if they go for car names by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      the other is spelled "Citroën

      We don't have none of them funny letters in American, and anyway if we don't got it, you don't really need it, so citroen is close enough. Why don't you surrender monkeys go back to surrendering to the germans and appeasing saddam and leave the spelling to us that knows right.

    3. Re:Heck if they go for car names by rlowe69 · · Score: 1

      The first time I saw a Citroën car in France I misread it as Citron (lemon in French) and thought "I'd hate to be their advertising company".

      I won't even touch Peugeot (pronounced poo-joh)... but the name does make sense in Paris where I hear they have just a teeny dog doo problem on the roads and sidewalks.

      --
      ----- rL
    4. Re:Heck if they go for car names by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah but he spelled it Citeroen.

    5. Re:Heck if they go for car names by CvD · · Score: 1

      So how come there are no French cars in the US? Citroën, Peugeot, and Renault make pretty decent cars. While there are lots of German and Scandinavian cars in the US, I've never actually seen any French cars there. You guys don't hate the French that much, do you?

      Cheers,

      Costyn.

    6. Re:Heck if they go for car names by mbbac · · Score: 1

      Peugeot and Renault used to be available here. Now the only French cars available here are Nissans.

      --

      mbbac

    7. Re:Heck if they go for car names by CvD · · Score: 1

      Dude Nissans are from Japan. :-)

      So I guess no French cars are available in the US. Just like you can't buy French skydiving gear in the US. Weird...

      Cheers,

      Costyn.

    8. Re:Heck if they go for car names by mbbac · · Score: 1

      Nissan is now controlled by Renault.

      --

      mbbac

    9. Re:Heck if they go for car names by schon · · Score: 1

      how come there are no French cars in the US? ... Renault make pretty decent cars.

      The problem with Renault in the US is that they spent all this money in the 1980's advertising the "Le Car".. which turned out to be the French version of the AMC Pacer..

      Now whenever someone hears the word "Reneault", they automatically think "Le Car", and head away.

    10. Re:Heck if they go for car names by cant_get_a_good_nick · · Score: 1

      So how come there are no French cars in the US?

      Same reason there are few American cars in Europe; they're made for 2 different worlds.

      America is made up of big people, big country, and cheap gas. Japan is pretty much the opposite, smaller people, expensive gas (with some rules on displacement) and not a lot of roads or parking spaces. Japanese cars never sold here until gas was so expensive people would try anything as long as it was cheap. The Japanese then adjusted their cars to american driving styles. The first Japanese mini-vans never sold here, it's gotten 2 or 3 generations to get it right.

      The European condition is similar, just not as extreme. All the cars are smaller. The Ford Mondeo died here (as the Contour) because it was too damn small for us USAians, in Europe it's considered pretty big. Here, the Contour was sold as a cheapo Tempo replacement, whereas in Europe it's pretty upmarket. The new Mondeo is actually pretty sweet, sadly not sold here, except in Jaguar X-Type form. The Focus, sold everywhere, is a subcompact here, a pretty normal size car in Europe. Most folks have cars smaller. One advantage to the Focus is that in Europe it's sold more upmarket, so that it's actually much more refined than a typical American subcompact. Sucks that it got a bad rep for the first year recalls (Focus 1.0, wait for 1.01 I guess). In Europe VW sells a smaller version of the Golf called the Gol, because the Golf is too big for most folks.

      So the cars are targetted differently, and tend to be very expensive here for the equivalent American car. That and the price for parts makes pretty much only luxury cars worth having here. Peugot doesn't sell really expensive cars, neither does Renault. Renault also got a lot of bad press for the Le Car, which in Europe was the pretty hot R5. Here, it was decontented and eviscerated, and noone wanted it. Same story for the Ford Sierra Cosworth, which came here as the much unloved Merkur XR4Ti.

    11. Re:Heck if they go for car names by cant_get_a_good_nick · · Score: 1

      but the name does make sense in Paris where I hear they have just a teeny dog doo problem on the roads and sidewalks.

      The best is seeing the guys on the mo-peds with the doggy-doo vacuums, sucking up the shit. I took a pic, the guy must have thought "such a tourist".

  39. ghostzilla by SHEENmaster · · Score: 2, Informative

    for in-class use you might wanna try ghostzilla. We switched to it in my high school computer programming class (a joke, I wanted to vomit when I saw the teachers code formatting.) and not a single person was ever caught using it.

    It will do cool things like open inside existing windows in greyscale with images only shown on mouseover, and it will disappear when you mouse leaves its area on to come back with a flick of the wrist. If you don't need precautions that serious, it has lesser settings of paranoia.

    --
    You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
    1. Re:ghostzilla by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I love Ghostzilla. It's what I use to search for jobs while I'm at work ;^)

    2. Re:ghostzilla by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We switched to it in my high school computer programming class (a joke, I wanted to vomit when I saw the teachers code formatting.)

      Yeah. That's pretty much the typical Slashdot comment. Pfeh.

    3. Re:ghostzilla by anonymous+cowfart · · Score: 0

      I love Goatsella! I use it all the time at work. I can surf my favorite site without anyone noticing.

      --

      So I'm a pervert. Welcome to the Internet.
  40. In other news... by EricHsu · · Score: 5, Funny
    Composer was renamed El Dorado Convertible, Chatzilla was renamed Dart Swinger and Camino, of course, remained unchanged.

    In another surprise sequence of events, GCC was renamed GNU Caprice Classic and Emacs was renamed Pontiac Catalina.

    Apparently as part of an prior agreement, the Chevy Tahoe was immediately renamed the GNU/Chevy Tahoe.

    - Eric

  41. /usr/bin/phoenix^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hfirebird by dragonman97 · · Score: 1

    Drat, looks like I'm going to have to set up an alias. I'm rather accustomed to typing !ph from bash these days (calls up `phoenix &`). I second prior comments about telling people I know about the aforementioned browser. I have raved about how great Phoenix is, and now if I mention Firebird, I'll have to find some way to make it clear that it's the same thing. I bet my boss it going to have some comment to make about this - he likes to make fun of the names of a bunch of Linux programs (though kind of unjustified at times - he thinks they sound silly).

  42. Linux has been renamed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    GNU/Beetle

    The gayest vehicle on the road. It comes with a stock flower holder.

    1. Re:Linux has been renamed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As a mac user I'm offended!

      Everyone knows OS X is the gayest operating system by far!

    2. Re:Linux has been renamed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dude, you almost had me cheering until the hail bush part.
      >snort

  43. Firebird, as in... by frostman · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...the Database?

    Honestly, as much as I admire the work these folks do, I have to wonder how one medium-to-high-profile open-source project can decide to use the name of another.

    It's not like there aren't other good poetic variations on the Phoenix theme.

    --

    This Like That - fun with words!

    1. Re:Firebird, as in... by asa · · Score: 4, Informative

      Honestly, as much as I admire the work these folks do, I have to wonder how one medium-to-high-profile open-source project can decide to use the name of another.

      Mozilla's Firebird browser is not going to be confused with a relational database. Without customer confusion, there isn't a trademark problem.

      --Asa

    2. Re:Firebird, as in... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Cool, so i can make a relational database and call it Netscape?

    3. Re:Firebird, as in... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Okay, but that begs the question:

      How was a browser going to be confused with a BIOS?

    4. Re:Firebird, as in... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Mozilla's Firebird browser is not going to be confused with a relational database. Without customer confusion, there isn't a trademark problem.

      Ok, what's with you boneheads who keep bringing up trademarks??? Did the original poster mention anything about trademarks? What about a modicum of respect? What about when (Linux or BSD) distributions have to choose a unique package name for installed software? Who gets "firebird"?

      Seriously, what would you think if MySQL renamed itself to Mozilla? Huh? Would you just shrug it off and say "well, no trademark is violated, so no big deal"? Or would you feel a little bit insulted?

    5. Re:Firebird, as in... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How was a browser going to be confused with a BIOS?

      Well, just in case you haven't been keeping up with things, the Phoenix BIOS makers are releasing a browser under the same name.

    6. Re:Firebird, as in... by Micah · · Score: 2

      Sorry, I'd have to agree with grandparent. Two reasonably well known open source products should NOT have the same name. Lame, lame, lame.

      I'll still use it though! :)

    7. Re:Firebird, as in... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not everybody is as computer literate as you are. Of course most of us here can differentiate between a browser and a DBMS, but to the average guy, they only know that these are "computer programs", so what's up with two different "computer programs" using the same name?

    8. Re:Firebird, as in... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Mozilla's Firebird browser is not going to be confused

      Of course it will - because people will not call it "Mozilla's Firebird", they will call it "Firebird".

      "I just installed the latest copy of Firebird"

    9. Re:Firebird, as in... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative
      Ok, what's with you boneheads who keep bringing up trademarks???
      Well, seeing as how trademark fears on the name Phoenix were the reason for the name change... And seeing as how Asa is one of the Mozilla drivers and we can probably assume that he is very much aware of these issues...

      uhm, yeah, why am I bothering again?
    10. Re:Firebird, as in... by Saeger · · Score: 1
      deja vu... (the Matrix has me!?)

      Oh, no, ... you just repeated yourself and both comments got modded up to 5. yay.

      --

      --
      Power to the Peaceful
    11. Re:Firebird, as in... by jtilak · · Score: 1

      I see... So if Microsoft had a relational database named Firebird you wouldn't think twice about calling Phoenix Firebird?

    12. Re:Firebird, as in... by mabinogi · · Score: 1

      apt-get install firebird

      I suspect there's gonna be some confused debian users in the future

      --
      Advanced users are users too!
    13. Re:Firebird, as in... by ianscot · · Score: 1
      Mozilla's Firebird browser is not going to be confused with a relational database. Without customer confusion, there isn't a trademark problem.

      The parent to your post didn't suggest it was a legal problem -- just that it showed a lack of inspiration, right? "Poetic variations on Phoenix" was the suggestion.

      (The cars thing kind of bores me, personally. Blimps, or early airplane models, or anything else would have more cachet...)

      --
      "Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
    14. Re:Firebird, as in... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Mozilla's Firebird browser is not going to be confused with a relational database. Without customer confusion, there isn't a trademark problem.

      Keep repeating this. Perhaps it will come true.
    15. Re:Firebird, as in... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Man you are so wrong..
      Firebird had the name first, you should come up with something else...

      It's just lame that you picked a name that is already in use by another open source project.
      Don't you have any respect...

    16. Re:Firebird, as in... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course there will be no confusion between a piece of software and another one.
      When someone google for Firebird docs you'll get about 25,600 results today.
      Firebird installation gets 43200 results.
      Firebird sources gets 26600 results.
      Firebird open source gets 31900 results.
      Should I continue?
      Of course people will not use google for this...Or, when used, they always put something like Firebird Web Browser docs.

      Thank you very much for helping both projects users!

  44. Wasn't AMD naming their chips after cars too? by Mustang+Matt · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Didn't AMD use Mustang and Thunderbird originally for their chips before they were released?

    --
    The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
    1. Re:Wasn't AMD naming their chips after cars too? by Overly+Critical+Guy · · Score: 0, Troll

      They make this thing called "Google." Why don't you go find out?

      --
      "Sufferin' succotash."
    2. Re:Wasn't AMD naming their chips after cars too? by intermodal · · Score: 2, Informative

      actually, AMD was naming them after breeds of horses for the most part, hence Morgan, Palomino, Mustang (which i have not heard of from AMD but i dont know everything), thoroughbred, and so on. I think thunderbird may also be horse related. I think they should just cut the crap and make the Clydesdale core since thats what all these overclockers who buy and fry the latest and greatest chip want you to think they are hung like anyhow.

      --
      In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
    3. Re:Wasn't AMD naming their chips after cars too? by Umbriel · · Score: 1

      No, AMD named their chips after breeds of horses, those two just happen to be cars too.

  45. Thunderbird Ghetto Wine by Ramuh · · Score: 2, Funny

    From their old radio campaign: What's the word? Thunderbird! What's the jive? Bird's alive! What's the price? Thirty twice! Ah... enjoy the savory citrus flavor

    --
    //radiotakeover.
    .for indep
  46. Car Names. by SpamJunkie · · Score: 5, Funny

    First is was [El] Camino, now Firebird and Thunderbird? Damn. Mozilla people need to get out more. I can see my mother right now "I can't read my email in Firebird" and I'll say "Thunderbird" to which she'll respond "Whatever"

    Joy.

  47. Outlook by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Has every g*ddamn email client worth using absolutely got to look like Outlook???

    If I wanted to run Windows I'd run Windows.

    Do OSS people just totally lack any imagination? Is Apple the only company that has neurons firing?

  48. Why? by stratjakt · · Score: 1

    Is this open source design coming full circle, a la:

    1) Pick a name for the project
    2) Set up a webpage and/or sourceforge project
    3) Wait for people to come write and test it for you
    4) ?
    5) Goto 1

    --
    I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
  49. What about Composer? by babymac · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What I'd really like to know is...has the old (Netscape) Composer been spun off into its own, stand-alone program? It sounds silly, but I really liked Composer. Simple and straightforward HTML creation. I'd love to see it offered as a stand-alone!

    --
    "War makes me sad." - Me
    1. Re:What about Composer? by Apreche · · Score: 1

      read about it in the new Mozilla roadmap. It will either be taken care of later, or made into an extension. Patience.

      --
      The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
    2. Re:What about Composer? by netdemonboberb · · Score: 5, Informative

      Composer is available in Mozilla, too. Making it stand-alone is going to happen. According to the New Roadmap, the GRE/toolkit will be the basis for all the stand-alone applications such as the browser, mail client, composer, and any other application created using the GRE/toolkit (which could be anything -- as long as it adheres to the MPL). This has been in the works for a long time. I remember hearing about breaking apart the applications way back in early 2002. The GRE was created not soon after, and now we have it being employed to finally create the stand-alone applications that were once fully integrated into the Mozilla process.

      --

      Volunteer Mozilla developer, RPI Student.
    3. Re:What about Composer? by EricHsu · · Score: 1
      I completely agree. It's the unsung hero of Mozilla and the only part of Mozilla I'm using now (Fire, Eudora, and Safari rule my desktop now), as I like to take meeting notes in HTML tables. I use BBEdit on the Mac for more of my HTML needs, but tables are too much of a pain in the neck for a text editor.

      Wouldn't it be cool if Composer started outputting clean CSS formatted pages? Maybe as a stop gap they can pipe output to HTML Tidy. I'll always remember Tidy as the program that nagged me into awareness of summary tags, etc. for the disabled audience...

      - Eric

      ps. Actually, what I'd really like is to have a GUI HTML editor I can hand to my less-technical friends that will edit HTML pages on their web sites. FTP is too much for them to cope with. Composer is almost there, with its Publish to Web features...

    4. Re:What about Composer? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dreamweaver :P

    5. Re:What about Composer? by eatdave13 · · Score: 1

      VIM, n00b.

      --
      "Verbing weirds language." -- Calvin
  50. Anyone Else? by jdkincad · · Score: 1

    Anyone else have this strange desire to listen to Stravinsky.

    //Looks for Firebird Suite CD

    --
    The great advantage of having a reputation for being stupid: People are less suspicious of you.
    1. Re:Anyone Else? by Scaba · · Score: 1
      Anyone else have this strange desire to listen to Stravinsky.

      Always. Shostakovich, too.

    2. Re:Anyone Else? by Threni · · Score: 1

      Hmm..anyone who names something after pieces of music by Stavinsky is just odd ;)

    3. Re:Anyone Else? by Threni · · Score: 1

      Ugh...thats StRavinsky...7:20 am... I should've gone to bed yesterday! I KNEW I'd forgotten something! Lousy latenight coding sessions....

  51. Thunderbird car? No, Thunderbird wine! by Call+Me+Black+Cloud · · Score: 1

    Cars are cool, no doubt about it, but instead of Firebird how about Mad Dog, Mogen David, or Night Train?

    Drink up!

  52. Question is by einhverfr · · Score: 4, Funny

    How many people will accidently install the Firebird RDBMS thinking it is the web browser....

    --

    LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
    1. Re:Question is by freeweed · · Score: 4, Funny

      Isn't a DBMS part of the latest Mozilla build?

      (laugh, it's a joke :)

      --
      Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
    2. Re:Question is by zurab · · Score: 1

      How many people will accidently install the Firebird RDBMS thinking it is the web browser....

      As opposed to how many people would install Phoenix BIOS thinking it is the Phoenix browser? And how many people would install Phoenix browser thinking they have to have it because they live in Phoenix?

      I'd say Phoenix at first spot, RDBMS second, and BIOS last.

    3. Re:Question is by varslot · · Score: 1

      The question is rather how many people will accidentally install the Firebird RDBMS thinking it is a web browser. Then start using is and still thinking it is a web browser.

      Think of the dissappointment their web experience will be...

      --
      There arises from a bad and unapt formation of words a wonderful obstruction to the mind. (Francis Bacon)
    4. Re:Question is by haystor · · Score: 1

      Damn, I accidentally just bought a Firebird when I meant to download a browser.

      --
      t
    5. Re:Question is by gid · · Score: 1

      Damnit, how does this funky web browser work? "SELECT DISTINCT(title), articlebody FROM http://slashdot.org/", nope that's not it--it would be a clever way to get rid of the dupes tho.

    6. Re:Question is by Kashif+Shaikh · · Score: 1

      Only if you want it to be Bugzilla ;)

    7. Re:Question is by evilviper · · Score: 1

      Oh no! The question is, how many people will download the browser and think they are getting a car?

      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
  53. Does this mean.... by G.I.+Suck · · Score: 4, Funny

    Everytime Firebird/Thunderbird crashes, I'll have to report it to my insurance company instead of bugzilla? I hope a tow truck can manage applications!

    1. Re:Does this mean.... by sharkey · · Score: 1
      I hope a tow truck can manage applications!

      The driver probably has just as much skill at that as the average MCSE.

      --

      --
      "Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
  54. Re:Umm... by Monkey-Man2000 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yeah, what's up with that. Did they not do a google search in their investigations? Or are they not concerned about conflicting names with another OS project? It even beats out the car on a search.

    --
    This post was generated by a Cadre of Uber Monkeys for Monkey-Man2000 (603495).
  55. New graphics needed by netdemonboberb · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Now we need someone to design some really cool graphics.
    http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cg i?id=202059

    --

    Volunteer Mozilla developer, RPI Student.
    1. Re:New graphics needed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      here ya go

      http://www.gnuarts.com/firebird/

      jamie

      www.gnuarts.com

  56. New Name by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    These are magical and exciting times! The rename has inspired me to change my name as well... I will hence forth be known as Jeff! Thanks You. Would someone be kind enough to post this on Slashdot.

  57. For all the Aussies out there by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why not name it after a real car...

    The "XY GT HO Phase3" Browser

    1. Re:For all the Aussies out there by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Still just a shitty handling, uneconomical, big car...

  58. Browser vs Database by karearea · · Score: 1

    So what browser are you using?
    Firebird
    No, not what database, what browser?
    The open source web browser, Firebird.
    Oh sorry, so you don't have the open source database Firebird then?
    thump

    1. Re:Browser vs Database by Kircle · · Score: 1

      Something interesting I noticed at the Mozillazine forum was that the web browser was listed as "Mozilla Firebird." So perhaps Firebird will continue to be the database while Mozilla Firebird will be the web browser.

      --

      -- Kircle

    2. Re:Browser vs Database by mattrix2k · · Score: 1

      Yeah... because everyone calls Word "Microsoft Word" and everyone calls China the "People's Republic of China". Fool.

    3. Re:Browser vs Database by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ah, but how about the Republic of China, in which everyone calls Taiwan. :)

  59. Iraq is now called "Phoenix" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You heard it here first!

    1. Re:Iraq is now called "Phoenix" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      From the ashes...

    2. Re:Iraq is now called "Phoenix" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is all a lie. We defeated the imperialist pigs, and we will resist any attempts to change our name. Allah has been faithful to us, and this is our reward. The streets run red with the American's blood.

    3. Re:Iraq is now called "Phoenix" by Adam9 · · Score: 1

      I admire your fan site ;)

  60. "In related news..." by Overly+Critical+Guy · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    1.) Skim article summary.
    2.) Begin post with "In related news..." or "In other news..."
    3.) Write unrelated and obviously improbable "news story."
    4.) Wait for crackhead moderators to instantly mod your post up to "+5 Funny."
    5.) Revel in your uncreativity and unoriginality. Do it all over again in the next article.

    --
    "Sufferin' succotash."
    1. Re:"In related news..." by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      6.) ?
      7.) Profit!

    2. Re:"In related news..." by netdemonboberb · · Score: 0, Troll

      Actually, I'm quite suspicious that he stole that joke from me. If you go to the Mozillazine article, you see I made the joke about the Pinto over an hour before the /. article was run. True, he changed it a bit -- but I at least should get some of the karma points. ;-)

      --

      Volunteer Mozilla developer, RPI Student.
    3. Re:"In related news..." by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Dude, you don't want them looking at the article, ASA points out what an overall asshole you are at one point there...

  61. Re:Umm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    my goodness. the parent post got modded from 0 to 5 to back to 0? and do people honestly feel that the post was overrated?

  62. Gatchaman? by Shiranui · · Score: 1

    The name recalls that classic anime "Gatchaman".
    The warship " Godphoenix" transforming into Hinotori (Japanese for 'Firebird') before finishing off the bad guys. Quite cool.

  63. name them after aol-tw properties (frodo?) by havaloc · · Score: 1

    While I'm sure car enthusiasts will enjoy the new names, why didn't they name them after AOL-TW properties, which would probably be possible since they are of the same family, perhaps...

    Frodo for the browser (fast on his feet)
    and
    Bilbo for the email client, etc.

  64. ... to a different web motor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So, with it's groovy gray brushed metal (stainless?) appearance, could it be... gasp
    Apple releases 10.3 (panther) and the web browser "Safari" has now been renamed to - DeLorean??

  65. Phoenix is best by Apreche · · Score: 1

    If you aren't using phoenix, and you use linux or windows or both, then start using it now. This browser changed my life. Seriously. Because it takes me less time to surf my daily sites I get more sleep. Read about it in my journal.

    I also felt compelled to teach others the majesty of this browser. Check this out. If anyone actually shows up I'll be amazed. And if enough turn up I'll probably do more of them, until I no longer have free time, which will be in about 2 weeks.

    I'm glad phoenix changed it's name to Firebird, because now I don't have to change the sweet icons I've got for it. I reccomend using the build from 3/20 and installing at least the tabbed browsing extensions. I believe the 3/20 build is the newest one where importing bookmarks isn't broken, that's why. I also rather like the Phusion theme. The guy who makes it is totally awesome, he updated it after I requested him to. Open source world needs more guys like that.

    --
    The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
    1. Re:Phoenix is best by Scaba · · Score: 1

      You truly are a nerd among nerds.

    2. Re:Phoenix is best by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are a nerd that transends other nerds, and have become a thing of awe!

      For that we salute you!

  66. Not just cars... by zsazsa · · Score: 1

    It'll also be sharing the name of the so-called "bum wine" Thunderbird.

    A radio jingle for perhaps the Gallos' most notorious product went like this: "What's the word? /Thunderbird/ How's it sold?/ Good and cold/What's the jive?/ Bird's alive/ What's the price?/ Thirty twice." According to author Ellen Hawkes, who wrote an unauthorized history of the Gallo family called Blood and Wine, Ernest later delighted in telling the story of driving through a tough, inner city neighborhood. Seeing a man on the sidewalk, Gallo rolled down his window and called out, "What's the word?" The immediate answer was, "Thunderbird."

  67. Re:Umm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I prefer Dickiebird, if you know what I mean.

  68. Nope... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm reading it, right here on my browser. Still says "Phoenix." Slashdot, you silly ass.

  69. More name changes ahead? by phalse+phace · · Score: 1

    Okay, so Phoenix was renamed to avoid legal problems with the Phoenix BIOS people. Now I'm wondering whether we'll see more name changes to avoid legal problems from the Firebird people or the Thunderbird people.

    1. Re:More name changes ahead? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Yes, it's possible that people mix a web browser with a car model.

    2. Re:More name changes ahead? by cant_get_a_good_nick · · Score: 1

      Phoenix was renamed because Phoenix BIOS began to add browser capabilities, therefore the Phoenix BIOS folks said there may be confusion. I doubt if people will ever think of a Ford Thunderbird as a major browser platform, so there is less of a chance of confusion.

  70. I should shut my pie hole. by teamhasnoi · · Score: 3, Informative
    I just nabbed the last nightliesinstaller that someone was so kind to make. It (20030411) seems to work so far, except you can't drag links to the bookmark toolbar from the location bar.

    And to further prove I'm a retread, here is the page for whiny bitch windows users like me to install a choice of nightlies.

    I'll go stand in the corner.

  71. Bunnies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Jesus of Nazareth did not die so we could enjoy eggs and chocolate bunnies!

    One religious fairytale is as good as another.

    1. Re:Bunnies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You at the Pearly Gates:

      You: "But you never proved that this was true. How was I supposed to know I was supposed to worship God?"
      St. Peter: "Everyone is given a chance to be saved. Millions of people do, and your 'lack of proof' was nothing more than your own unwillingness to do so."
      You: "So, is there anyway I can still get into Heaven?"
      St. Peter: "No, I am sorry."

    2. Re:Bunnies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      wow, i am so going to laugh when you die and realise that there isn't actually an afterlife.

    3. Re:Bunnies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      wow, i am so going to laugh when you die and realise that there isn't actually an afterlife.

      Perhaps, you will, but his chances are better. If the grandparent dies and he is wrong and there is no afterlife, he dies and nothing happens. If you die and are wrong, you burn in hell for all eternity.

      The grandparent's punishment for an incorrect assumption about the afterlife is far less severe than yours, and is obviously a better choice.(Blaise Pascal also says this)

    4. Re:Bunnies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you die and are wrong, you burn in hell for all eternity.

      Anyone who only calls himself a "Christian" for that reason deserves to burn more than those of us who simply don't believe.

  72. Better than the April Fool... by Misch · · Score: 1

    It's better than the April Fool...
    Phoenix became "Phallus", and the entire release page was changed for April Fools Day. Even MozillaZine had changed it's forums on that day to be "Phallus Forums"

    The Phoenix Project

    Announcement: After months of speculations, the new name has finally been decided. Phoenix will be called Phallus. The team has also decided not to release the long awaited 0.6 milestone and instead release 0.7. "The strong competition in the ongoing browser war and our lack of recent updates made this version jump necessary to keep up with the competition from Internet Explorer," said Asa Dotzler of Mozilla.org fame.


    --

    --You will rephrase your request for me to go to hell. Goto statements are not acceptable programming constructs
  73. Phoenix had to be renamed? by telstar · · Score: 3, Funny

    So MacGyver and the Phoenix Foundation finally staked their claim to their name, huh? I would've thought you could've settled it all for some duct tape, a pencil, three acorns and some sodium benzoate.

  74. Official Response: Redmond Information Minister by belloc · · Score: 1

    Official media response from Redmond:

    "The Mozilla press is all about lies! All they tell is lies, lies and more lies!

    "They're not even [within] 100 miles [of a new browser]. There is not any new browser. They hold no place in Redmond. This is an illusion ... they are trying to sell to the others an illusion.

    "I can assure you that those villains will recognize, will discover in appropriate time in the future how stupid they are and how they are pretending things which have never taken place.

    "Let the Open Source infidels bask in their illusion!"

    Belloc

    --
    I got more rhymes than Jamaica got Mangoes.
  75. More Related News by oaf357 · · Score: 1

    Netscape being renamed to Model-T. Once a great innovation but now an antique.

  76. MD - Re:Thunderbird car? No, Thunderbird wine! by snilloc · · Score: 1
    "Mad Dog"? or just "MD"?.

    Personally I hate the stuff, but somebody pointed out to me that nowhere on the bottle does it actually say "Mad Dog", just "MD".

    And if you have to specify that your "wine" is "grape flavored", that's a pretty bad sign. Also bad is when people differentiate the products by the color and that's just as descriptive as the "flavor".

  77. Its still stupid by bogie · · Score: 0

    "As for a quasi-obscure DB"

    Not if your into open source databases, which incidentally many people are.

    This is like Apache renaming to xfce.

    I actually don't think this will really hurt the Firebird DB project, its just kinda lame.

    Fulltime Phoenix user since .2

    --
    If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
  78. The name change is only temporary by Eslyjah · · Score: 1

    On August 20, both Firebird and Thunderbird will probably be renamed "Mozilla".

  79. moto? by diesel_jackass · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It's too bad they didn't name [Phoenix] after a motorcycle. It would've made much more sense. Motorcycles are faster, lighter, more compact, more efficient, and way more fun than crappy cars.

    1. Re:moto? by Xconnect · · Score: 1

      Well at least they didn't name it "WeLoveTheIraqiInformationMinister.com"!

      This link is dead but you should be able to obtain cached copies of that from Google

      --
      --- root@127.0.0.1
    2. Re:moto? by cabraverde · · Score: 1

      The Triumph Thunderbird is a lovely old English motorcycle. My father has one - they're beautiful!

      Photo here...

      So Minotaur has the right idea at least!

    3. Re:moto? by cygnusx · · Score: 1

      > This link is dead

      Try http://64.39.15.171.

    4. Re:moto? by wagemonkey · · Score: 1

      You mean Fireblade instead of Firebird?

    5. Re:moto? by Tet · · Score: 1
      Motorcycles are faster

      Errr... No. Well OK, so most road going bikes are faster than most road going cars. But in terms of outright speed, my mind's elsewhere (with this weekend being the first meeting of the UK season).

      --
      "The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike." -- Delos B. McKown
    6. Re:moto? by Coelacanth · · Score: 2, Insightful


      Not a good idea. You're much more likely to have a "fatal exception" on a motorcycle.

    7. Re:moto? by Minn_Kota_Marine · · Score: 1

      You mean just like [Phoenix]? ;-)

      Actually, if you look at stats from the Hurt report. Take away all the stats for the dumbasses who rode while under the influence of 1 or more drugs, rode without a helmet, and the ones who didn't even have their license and you're left with very few casualties.

    8. Re:moto? by Minn_Kota_Marine · · Score: 1

      I'd guess and say that 90% of the motorcycle population is faster than 90% of the car population.

      But the thing about motorcycles it not just the fact that they're fast. Its the fact that they go fast, fast.

    9. Re:moto? by solferino · · Score: 1

      cool pic, thanks

  80. while looking around phoenix by lingqi · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Okay not completely on-topic, but:

    I have noticed that RadialContext, which is probably the best thing that happened to browsers since the mouse, is now available for Phoenix, or Thunderbird, or whatever.

    A little note on that is you can change all the skins to pngs (do a global replace on the sript files) and lower the opacity to like 70% or so. suddenly you've got transparenty menus! Looks sweet as all heck.

    --

    My life in the land of the rising sun.

  81. excruciating install processes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If this is the case, Linux will have no trouble staying on top once it gains user base. These trenches are deep, real deep.

  82. G(r)eeks by TheCubic · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yeah, story writer, but _I_ live next to a Minatour and a Phoenix. I live in Knossos and have a summer home in Heliopolis.

    I guess in reality I 'live next' to two Tan Olds Cutlass Cieras, right close to the bar in the movie Fargo. Guess which city I live in!

  83. What a strange coincidence... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Thunderbird is what I drink when I drive my Firebird.

  84. An American Classic by K-Man · · Score: 1

    From Ernest and Julio Gallo.

    --
    ---- "If we have to go on with these damned quantum jumps, then I'm sorry that I ever got involved" - Erwin Schrodinger
  85. rude poster... by angst911 · · Score: 1, Funny

    On cinder blocks? Are you a redneck, do you live in the sticks? Where I come from both of those names refer to cars which are still running fine. Maybe the poster should pull his Nike out of his mouth and think before he types next time without trying to sound cool.

    --
    Taking over one bit at a time...
    1. Re:rude poster... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Where I come from both of those names refer to cars which are still running fine.

      With or without the wheels?

  86. Firebird and Thunderbird? by Bewray · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Frankly I liked Phoenix and Minotaur much better.

    But if they were going to change their names to the new "old car" motif, why oh why a Firebird and a Thunderbird? If they called one of them Stingray, I wouldn't be bitching. Not that a 'vette was a great car, but because the name is so much cooler. I know Stingray is probably taken, but so is Firebird, so :P thbbbt.

    Even then, why name them after middle of the hill production cars. If the apps are supposed to be bitchen, use the names of bitchen super/muscle cars. The obvious: Superbird, Cobra, F1 (as in McLaren). Or, the not so obvious: Pantera, Barchetta, and Silver Shadow. Or you could even mix the two and go with the likes of Tuscan, Cerbera, or Tamora.

    --
    My spoon is too big!
  87. Dinosaurs evolutioned to birds? by MrJones · · Score: 2, Funny

    Seems that Mozilla is evolutioning to birds, like in real world evolution :-)

    --
    Get my e-mail after a captcha test in: http://tinymailt
    1. Re:Dinosaurs evolutioned to birds? by FroMan · · Score: 1

      No, evolution is a competing mail/organizer program...

      --
      Norris/Palin 2012
      Fact: We deserve leaders who can kick your ass and field dress your carcass.
  88. Re:Umm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    One issue I see right away is this "Firebird" is not the same as the one...

    Yeah yeah Mozilla PR dept, save your breath, we know... it doesn't violate any trademarks...

  89. Freebird by John+Garvin · · Score: 1

    It's Free Software, right? Can I make a request?

    FREEBIRD!!!!

  90. Re:Volvos suck ass! by chunkwhite86 · · Score: 1

    Shut the fuck up! Volvos suck ass, you bitch! They are not American and only America makes good cars, you unpatriotic ass!

    YARBAC (Yet Another Redneck Buys A Computer) and found slashdot.

    Just an FYI, Volvo's are amongst the Safest and most Reliable cars in the world. I don't think the Americans can claim that with their exploding Pintos and rolling-over Ford SUV's.

    --
    I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
  91. Just started using Phoenix by AlanS2002 · · Score: 1

    I've been useing Mozilla since 0.8 and love it, the problem being that I only useing it's browser. I used Phoenix once before (most of been 0.2 or 0.1, can't quite remember) and although it was smaller than Mozilla, I don't think it had tabbed browsing at that stage. Now it does and it's great. The size really helps, at school I got only 50 Mb quota on my share space and I can't install on any of the machines, so I was stuck with IE at school till now.
    Can't wait until they start useing Phoenix as the browser in Mozilla instead of Navigator.

    --
    Not all conservatives are stupid,
    but it is true that most stupid people are conservative.
    - Hume
  92. In other news... by Ozan · · Score: 4, Funny

    German Software maker SAP is renaming their R/3 software to 750iL.

    *rimshot*

  93. (It would help with branding + IE war) Re:Request by otisg · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yes, I agree.
    Not only would your friends know what you are talking about, but so would mine and everyone elses. When you say Internet Explorer, everyone knows what you are talking about, right?
    I think people behind Mozilla should learn and adopt this simple 'trick' from Microsoft if they want Mozilla/Phoenix/Firebird to become more popular.

    I would love to see the percentage of visitors using Mozilla go up in my access_log, and the percentage of IE go down. Both Mozilla and Pheonix deserve it.

    --
    Simpy
  94. Under threat of legal action by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Mozilla's Thunderbird and Firebird components will undergo a name change as these are apparently trademarked by the Ford Motor Company and Pontiac, a division of General Motors Corporation.

    In response the team will rename the Mozilla-based browser and email clients in the next release. In following with their current Greek theme, the team has been throwing around the names Muse for the browser and Pegasus for Email.

    Team members have a good "gut feeling" these names will not be confused with existing commercial products or trademarks.

    1. Re:Under threat of legal action by Unregistered · · Score: 1

      Just for the record, one, real word names can't be copyrighted. All it means is you can't sell a car named Firebird or Thunderbird. You ncan use the names however you want, though.

  95. Given windows market share... by raehl · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Shouldn't customer confusion be assumed?

    1. Re:Given windows market share... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If FirebirdDB didn't bother to trademark their name, obviously they don't care.

  96. back then by SHEENmaster · · Score: 1

    There was a downloadable binary; much easier than compiling from source in windows.

    --
    You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
  97. Liar liar pants on fire by A+nonymous+Coward · · Score: 1

    You can't both moderate and comment on an article.

    1. Re:Liar liar pants on fire by Danse · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Sure you can. Just gotta whip out one of your spare accounts to post with after you moderate :)

      --
      It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
    2. Re:Liar liar pants on fire by kasperd · · Score: 1

      Just gotta whip out one of your spare accounts to post with after you moderate

      Multiple accounts is only for the schizophrenic, good if you want to argue with yourself. I can imagine that leading to some interesting flames.

      --

      Do you care about the security of your wireless mouse?
    3. Re:Liar liar pants on fire by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or post and moderate at the same time. Try it. You can post twice at the same time too. More than twice, if you can switch and click fast enough. No "one post every two minutes" limit for me!

  98. In the same car theme by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I hunt in my favorite car it's not going to I got to see some neet while on vacation last time I used the other IE it started to look like the the artist formerly known as the shuttle

  99. One word... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    DREAMWEAVER!

    Free 30-day trial of Dreamweaver MX from Macromedia.

    Dreamweaver MX is so much better than the older versions. If you haven't tried it recently, try again. You'll never want to go back.

  100. So they renamed the browser.. by doormat · · Score: 1

    but when does version .6 come out? Really, its been forever. At least 0.5 was really nice.

    --
    The Doormat

    If you're not outraged, then you're not paying attention.
    1. Re:So they renamed the browser.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      it's fairly close to completion. Judging by the nightly builds it is already vastly improved.

      The strange thing is that the Phoenix team advocates a small number of developers. What are they going to do with everyone else now?

  101. If I could bottle Mozilla projects.. by Laplace · · Score: 1

    If I could bottle Mozilla based projects, the directions would read.

    1. Design a new interface for the Gecko engine.
    2. Come up with a name.
    3. Work that name deeply in the public consciousness.
    4. Change the name for legal reasons
    5. Rinse and repeat.

    --
    The middle mind speaks!
  102. Katana by knowledgepeacewi · · Score: 1

    Katana would be a nice name for Phoenix/Firebird.

  103. T-Bird is alive and well by Amazing+Quantum+Man · · Score: 1

    Ford re-released the T-Bird (in roadster style) last year! They aren't all up on blocks!

    --
    Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
  104. More mozilla insider arrogance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Asa, puh-lease. How about a little honesty here.

    The BIOS company has force to sue you. Some sourceforge project can't. So, it's no big deal to you if you take over their project's name. Nothing more, nothing less.

    Originality is dead at netscape.

  105. mm... so interesting... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    that's the most useful news I've read today!

  106. Idiots using duplicate names by mattr · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Dumb. They will find that firebird.sourceforge.net has been taken already, Firebird is Interbase, the open source version of borland db which is run by real professionals who run a real db consulting business. And the next version is being built. They really don't need a raft of people making mistakes about their name. Pick your own!

  107. Why Firebird? by grahamtriggs · · Score: 1


    I was hoping for Fireball XL5...

  108. 8472 by 6hill · · Score: 0
    I mean, are you going to remember what "Browser 8472" would mean?
    That whenever you use it you'll get painfully sucked into fluidic space to serve as nutritional snacks to many-legged monsters that make even the Borg quake in their stylish yet affordable boots?

    ...oh, wait, I think that description was already reserved for IE. Never mind. Move along.

  109. Firebird/Thunderbird? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Personally, I don't like these names at all. To me it sound kind of awkward. "Use Firebird browser [Thunderbird email client]". Why not just call it Fire and Thunder? Or better yet, call it... THE BURNINATOR!!! "THE" is part of the name.

    1. Re:Firebird/Thunderbird? by Graspee_Leemoor · · Score: 1

      "Why not just call it Fire and Thunder?"

      Or Fujin and Raijin- Japanese for the above. Sounds even cooler.

      graspee

  110. Re:Volvos suck ass! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    For your information, Volvo Cars are nowadays owned by Ford Corporation. So that makes Volvo American.
    Now who is an unpatriotic ass?

  111. Have you really forgotten? by Ctrl-Alt-Del · · Score: 1

    I'm disappointed by all the Americans with a blind spot in their memory for the world's worst car, designed to be something that no-one in their sane mind would ever buy.

    Ladies and gentleman, I present you with Microsoft's 7th generation browser - the Ford Edsel.

    --
    "Life is like a sewer - what you get out of it depends on what you put into it" - Tom Lehrer
    1. Re:Have you really forgotten? by DeputySpade · · Score: 1

      Bah. The edsel was just ahead of it's time. It was a cool car. I know of a guy in my area who restores them. :) Heck. I even saw one at the WoW show with a 427 Cobra Jet ;>

      Most people who slag the edsel couldn't even pick one out of a lineup. I'm not accusing you of this, but I've found it to be true. A lot of people just think it's a crap car because that's what they've heard. They don't even know what it is or why it got it's reputation.

      --


      This space intentionally left blank
    2. Re:Have you really forgotten? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Most people who slag the edsel couldn't even pick one out of a lineup.

      It's the one with the grille shaped like a cunt.

  112. Does anyone else find it curious... by Mr.+Smoove · · Score: 1

    ...that a project called Mozilla (with a logo of a great big lizard) with the rendering engine called Gecko (a lizard) now renames the two main forks of the project *bird...

    --
    Mr. Smoove
    1. Re:Does anyone else find it curious... by demon · · Score: 1

      It's just evolution at work, dontcha know.

      --

      Sam: "That was needlessly cryptic."
      Max: "I'd be peeing my pants if I wore any!"
  113. how about by m1chael · · Score: 1

    doobeedoo and doobeedee do do.

    --
    I know you are psychotic, but please make an effort.
  114. my mistake by Graspee_Leemoor · · Score: 1

    Oops -1 dumbass posting too early in the morning.

    Fujin and Raijin would be thunder and lightning, not thunder and fire.

    Blerg. Need more coffee.

    graspee

  115. Ah but let's not forget... by miketang16 · · Score: 1

    That the best part about this whole renaming thing, is that it is part of a larger scheme to split up the Mozilla project into separate projects. That's what I'm excited about. =)

    --
    -------
    "In times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."
    -- George Orwell
  116. No, no. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    internet Explorer.

    "It works on *any* internet, not just the original!"

  117. types of guitar by sfraggle · · Score: 1

    Firebird and Thunderbird were strangely shaped Lead and Bass guitars made by Gibson during the 60s. Perhaps they're going to name the IRC client 'Pearl' and form a band.

    --
    were you expecting to see a sig here? perhaps you'd rather see the inside of an ambulance!
  118. 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... by Isofarro · · Score: 1

    Thunderbirds are go! This message is courtesy of the International Rescue based in Tracey Island.

    Other than Firebird also being a trademarked software company belonging to British Telecoms (who tried to push their claims to owning hyperlinks).

    1. Re:5... 4... 3... 2... 1... by rossdee · · Score: 1

      "Thunderbirds are go!"

      And Firebird XL5 was an earlier puppet scifi tv series by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson...

  119. So what is Mozilla itself gonna be renamed to... by lesinator · · Score: 1

    Thundercougarfalconbird?

  120. Re:Volvos suck ass! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There's no "Ford Corporation." There is a "Ford Motor Company" though.

    Volvo is part of FoMoCo's PAG (Premiere Automotive Group) with Land Rover, Aston Martin, and Jaguar.

  121. Phoenix Nightlies by fistynuts · · Score: 1

    Is that like Phoenix Nights?

    --
    "You heard the man, Tubbs.. get undressed."
  122. And Mozilla itself will be renamed Marauder by wowbagger · · Score: 2, Funny

    And Mozilla itself shall be renamed "Mercury Marauder" - it is big, heavy, powerful, and not quite as expensive as the competition.

    Meanwhile, rumors from Redmond indicate they have begun on a project codenamed "Ricer" - no additional data found.

  123. Re:Volvos suck ass! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > Just an FYI, Volvo's are amongst the Safest and most Reliable cars in the world.

    On the downside, they're driven by Volvo drivers, who (not all of them, but a significant proportion) think that because they drive one of the safest cars on the road, that excuses them from all that tedious paying attention to what they are doing stuff.
    Ask any biker whether they think Volvos are safe.

  124. A plea for (phoenix|firebird)-i586 binaries by Boiotos · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Phoenix is a lightweight and fast browser, so it's ideal for boxes built around the last generation of processors, like K2s, Pentium Pros, etc. (Or is that the generation before last?)

    The bummer is that both milestone and daily builds are -i686 binaries. Someone else filed a bugzilla ticket on this in December. I guess we can just vote for it and hope that the mozilla.org folks find the time to do a -i586 build, too.

    1. Re:A plea for (phoenix|firebird)-i586 binaries by TeknoHog · · Score: 1
      Have you actually tried the Linux i686 binary? It works just fine on my K6-III.

      It's probably optimized for i686 without using any exclusive i686 instructions (something like -mcpu=i686 -march=i386 if you think about gcc). Incidentally, the new release of SETI@home does the same, and there is only one binary for x86 Linux (i686 version but runs on my K6III).

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
    2. Re:A plea for (phoenix|firebird)-i586 binaries by Greg+W. · · Score: 2, Insightful

      To hell with builds! I want a document that tells a Mozilla newbie like me how to compile this monstrosity myself! Because I'm sitting here on an HP-UX 10.20 system, and last time I saw a pig, its aerodynamics left a bit to be desired.

      Come on, people, just one little 800 byte HTML file?

      cvs -d :pserver:foo@bar/junk login
      password is "foobar"
      cvs -z3 -d :pserver:foo@bar/junk co phoenix
      cd phoenix
      CC=/where/I/put/gcc-3.2 ./configure --disable-gronkler-engine
      make

      If you can't build this thing in 10 steps or less, how the hell do you ever expect it to be useful? Or is it supposed to be a "rite of passage" build system, like nethack's? And if I can't build it with gcc, then fuck it. I am not going to track down version 3.78.123-a-9q of proprietary HP C++ compiler #74 which requires a codeword to install.

      (Sorry if I sound more bitter than usual. But the mozilla developers are truly on a different planet from the rest of us. Even filing a bug is a major chore, which has a serious impact on their QA. They should take a hint from Debian: apt-get install reportbug; reportbug.)

    3. Re:A plea for (phoenix|firebird)-i586 binaries by swordgeek · · Score: 1

      Here's something that might get you pointed in the right direction. Go check out comp.netscape.public.mozilla.unix (groups.google.com for the archives), and look up the articles by Jim Dunn. He moved heaven and earth to make mozilla binaries that work under HP-UX, and his 'stuff' carried over to Solaris quite nicely. VERY useful, and will probably get you up and running.

      --

      "People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
  125. Infringing NEW Names by HeelToe · · Score: 1

    So, I searched the discussion and didn't see anything about this.

    Why in the world would they change the names of these projects to escape naming conflicts and court battles to NEW NAMES that have the same problems? I haven't done a trademark lookup, but I feel pretty safe in assuming both Ford and Pontiac own trademarks on the names of the cars they sell.

    This seems like a really dumb move.

  126. Oh dear by xyrw · · Score: 1

    Looks like Mozilla is going to the birds

    I like the names, though :-)

  127. Firebird, Thunderbird, and Camino? by mbbac · · Score: 2, Funny

    Is the new company look at Netscape a mullet?

    --

    mbbac

  128. Put up on cinder blocks!? HEY! by Malic · · Score: 1

    I still drive a pre-retro design '97 Thunderbird and it runs and looks quite fine, thank you very much! ;)

    --
    I swear by MacOS X. Although I use to swear *at* MacOS 9...
  129. In other (redundant) news... by nob · · Score: 2, Funny

    The new "AOL for Broadband" has renamed it's browser Corvair - unsafe at any speed.

    --
    daed si luap
  130. Re: Yes, AMD did name chips after cars originally by wheresthefire · · Score: 1

    The original poster is right--AMD was originally naming the Athlons after muscle cars: Mustang and Thunderbird, obviously, but there was also a "Spitfire" and a "Corvette"--see, for example this article on Cnet. They made a deliberate switch to horses. My impression was that they did this because of copyright/trademark infringement issues. If that's the case, how are "Firebird" and "Thunderbird" going to fare any better--won't they just have to change the name again?

    As for the argument that different products can have the same name, I think the hurdle is higher than most people think. For example, in the mid-90's Chevrolet was sued over the "Beretta" moniker by Beretta USA (a handgun manufacturer), and the lawsuit was successful enough that Chevy abandoned the name. Beretta USA argued that Chevy was using the power and speed associated with its Beretta trademark to boost the sales of its cars.

  131. Thanks for the NEW Naming Confusion by syntap · · Score: 2, Insightful

    One thing open-source projects should NEVER do is rename their product to the name of ANOTHER open-source project.

    In this case, they've given it the same name as Interbase's open-source flavor.

    I mean, it's plainly there on SourceForge... not like it couldn't have been researched.

    http://firebird.sourceforge.net/
    http://www.ibp hoenix.com/

  132. Firebird already taken by g8oz · · Score: 2, Insightful
    The name is already taken by an open source database project.

    See http://firebird.sourceforge.net. Geez, how rude.

  133. Not a hoax? by StillaCoward · · Score: 1

    So I guess this whole directional shift was not an April Fools Day prank?

    I must say I still don't fully understand the extent of XUL usage in the new platform.

  134. Interesting by Arcturax · · Score: 1

    Now they can be sued by Pontiac and Ford instead while Chevy sues the Camino team.

    Though I think in this case, the best way to settle this is just to buy a bunch of SUV's from all three companies and run over all intellectual property lawyers, making everyone happy in the process, even the IP lawyers, who will be happily returned to the hell they spawned from :)

    --

    --Won't that be grand? Computers and the programs will start thinking and the people will stop. - Dr. Walter Gibbs
  135. RDBMS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Other's have already said this, but the more that point this out, the better the chance the Phoenix people will get their brains repaired: Firebird is an open-source relational database. The name is already taken.

    And, Asa, don't reply to this and say that there is no trademark problems. We're not talking about trademarks--we're talking about etiquette. Choosing the name of another open-source project is plain rude!

  136. Pontiac Safari by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Safari was a full-sized Pontiac wagon, I believe, not a cut-down sedan. Apple needs to change the brushed metal theme to "genuine simulated plastic wood-grained vinylette".
    Wait for the Ranchero browser.

  137. Re:Volvos suck ass! by Spacelord · · Score: 1

    only Volvo = Ford nowadays

  138. don't you mean firebird? by FuzzyFurB · · Score: 1

    Don't you mean Firebird nightly?

    --
    Will Stokes Album Shaper http://albumshaper.sf.net
  139. Re:Question is project awareness by bsstmiller · · Score: 1

    It is an advertising, product awareness issue. How are we to get Firebird out there to the masses when they think it is a browser?????

  140. Shades of Harry Potter by swordgeek · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Does anyone know where this bizarre name-changing ideology comes from?

    The first Harry Potter book was the Philosopher's stone everywhere except the US, where it was the Sorcerer's stone. Phoenix, a mythical bird that consumed itself with fire, has been replaced with...firebird. Minotaur, a half man/half bull has been replaced with...thunderbird???

    Seems like most of these name changes involve a dumbing down of the name. There are other examples around too. The question then, is WHY???

    --

    "People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
    1. Re:Shades of Harry Potter by dtobias · · Score: 1

      And the upcoming fifth book is "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"... can they get sued by the same people who threatened the Phoenix browser project?

      --
      --Dan
      Web Tips
    2. Re:Shades of Harry Potter by swordgeek · · Score: 1

      So in the US, is it being released as "Harry Potter and the Order of the Firebird?" :-)

      --

      "People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
  141. What happened to... by SomeOtherGuy · · Score: 1

    Galeon and Skipstone?

    Are they now Chevette and Deloreon?

    That will teach me to take a vacation from my computer. Come back and they have shuffled all the names around. What's next? -- I vote for Text Editors renamed to fighter planes from around the world. %s/Emacs/B52/g and %s/vim/F16/g.

    --
    (+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.
  142. Re:Not quite. by britain · · Score: 1

    Camino is a lightweight OS X browser based on the Gecko engine but without the XUL interface of Phoenix, Mozilla, et al.

    Phoenix for the Mac is not Camino, though they say official Firebird builds will soon be available for the Mac.

    --
    "There are some people who, if they don't know, you can't tell 'em." - Louie Armstrong
  143. Re: Yes, AMD did name chips after cars originally by intermodal · · Score: 1

    actually it was my impression that the spitfire was a Duron (my duron at home is a spitfire), but now that i look it up you are right.

    --
    In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
  144. Holy Redneck! by MicroBerto · · Score: 1

    I'm surprised everyone is making fun of these names and not the guy who submitted this! Where's them redneck jokes? :)

    --
    Berto
  145. Cars? Are you sure? by metamatic · · Score: 1

    Maybe Firebird is named after the dead software company and Thunderbird is named after the Gerry Anderson SF TV series?

    Oh well, at least there'll be a really obvious choice of icon for Thunderbird 1.0.

    --
    GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
  146. Mozilla's gratuitus changes drive me nuts by OYAHHH · · Score: 1

    As,

    I implied in a post a few days ago Mozilla seems to be run by a bunch of folks who only seem to be able to see about an inch ahead of themselves.

    Arbitrarily changing the Mozilla browser's name to a pre-existing software project shows lack of foresight, lack of courtesy, and a serious level of denseness.

    Come on Mozilla.org, wake up, look around, play nice. Stop changing the browser features (how many aesthetic revisions can one have or need?) and don't steal someone else's name, whether it is a commercial or non-commercial entity.

    --
    Caution: Contents under pressure
  147. Great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    One more freaking browser I have to program for.

  148. del, the ultimate in compression by bzipitidoo · · Score: 1
    Delete classic.jar or modern.jar in the "chrome" subdirectory, whichever you don't use.

    Or get one of the many custom themes (in the Phoenix/Firebird menu, it's at Tools -> Preferences -> Themes and Extensions) which are usually much smaller and delete both classic and modern. Gets you a little less than a megabyte.

    --
    Intellectual Property is a monopolistic, selfish, and defective concept. It is "tyranny over the mind of man"
  149. a joke about the names: by fishdan · · Score: 1

    This joke will probably only make sense to americans, but I hope other nationalities will reply to this with their appropriate models Q: What is the difference between a Firebird and a porcupine? A: A porcupine has pricks on the outside.

    --
    Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm
  150. Re:(It would help with branding + IE war) Re:Reque by Kashif+Shaikh · · Score: 1

    No, Phoenix should be called 'Mozilla LE' , or 'Mozilla Light Edition'. Mozilla with all extra stuff should be called 'Mozilla DE/XE'. Why can't open source projects have different 'product lines' beats me. I guess, everyone has an ego, and likes to have their own names.

  151. So was XForms... by psgalbraith · · Score: 1

    W3C cames up with XForms - The Next Generation of Web Forms in 2002, but
    XForms - a GUI toolkit for X has existed for a long time (initially here).

  152. Interestingly..... by ONOIML8 · · Score: 1

    "Interestingly, they're both named after cars I often see in my neighbors' lawns."

    This is interesting how?

    --
    . Quit playing Monopoly with Bill. Switch to one of many non-Microsoft products today.
  153. white trash by juan2074 · · Score: 1

    That's right. When your neighbours have Firebirds, Thunderbirds, and especially Camaros in their front yards, they are white trash. What kind of neighbourhood do you live in?

    1. Re:white trash by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well no offense to anyone, but the man did specify that the cars on his neighbors yard are on cinder-blocks

  154. 'Should a' named 'em.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...Thuderbird and Ripple!

  155. Name Change by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I believe they should call Phoenix "Web Traveler."

  156. New Name for Mozilla by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Since the browser component will be Firebird.

    Does this mean the entire product will be called...

    Firebird Suite!

    (or will Igor Stravinsky's descendents cause trademark issues)

  157. it's YARD, not LAWN by iamhassi · · Score: 1

    rednecks have YARDS, not LAWNS

    --
    my karma will be here long after I'm gone
  158. Not Mozilla LE by eMartin · · Score: 1

    But Phoenix/Firebird is NOT Mozilla LE. Firebird is now going to be the main Browser application, and Mozilla is the name of the open source project behind it.

  159. Re:Volvos suck ass! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Volvo's are amongst the Safest and most Reliable cars in the world.

    Probably because they aren't built by a bunch of illiterate negros like American cars are.

  160. Can I embed WhiteTrash in Firebird? by MarcQuadra · · Score: 1

    I'm interested in embedding WhiteTrash into Firebird. I bet it'll go real fast. Hope it doesn't crash much.

    --
    "Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
    1. Re:Can I embed WhiteTrash in Firebird? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oeone already embedded Abiword (someone should have suggested WhiteTrash for an April 1st release) in the Mozilla browser. http://abimoz.mozdev.org/

      Should be just as possible to embed it in the Mail client.

  161. They need a good graphician... by SharpFang · · Score: 1

    Apparently nobody was able to draw a decent minotaur before the deadline, and they decided the phoenix recolored to blue would make a decent logo for mailnews, just the module needed name change.

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    45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
  162. a pointless comment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    a completely pointless comment

  163. Re:Phoenix is best [OT] by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Too bad nobody showed up. I showed up, but didn't speak up when you asked because I figured you could use the extra free hour (since I already use phoenix, I was just going to maybe find out interesting things I didn't know about it).