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Lindows becomes Lindash

Posted by michael on from the at-least-it-isn't-linfire dept.

Daveh writes "The Register is reporting that 'The operating system Lindows is now available as Lin---s (pronounced: Lin-dash) in those countries where Microsoft has blocked the availability of the desktop Linux distribution. The new name complies with a recent Amsterdam court ruling (PDF), the San Diego company says.' There are a few new sites to reflect the name change, including Lin---s.com and Lindash.nl."

7 of 536 comments (clear)

  1. They... by double-oh+three · · Score: 5, Interesting

    They obviously arn't happy about the change, seeing as how their current front-page picture shows a hang-man with only d, o, w left in the letter-box. (Lin_ _ _ s might be a better way to put it.)

    --
    "For years, I struggled with reality... but I'm happy to say I finally won out over it." -- Elwood P. Dowd
  2. Totally Idiotic. by torpor · · Score: 5, Interesting

    How'm I supposed to search for "lin---s" in google, for example? Please don't break out the meta-escape, its already past time for a headache remedy on this Lindows name issue ...

    A better name would've been "Lintel", but okay, I guess the Dutch Govt' wouldn't have seen the humor in that name-switch, eh? ;)

    --
    ; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
  3. Been done before! by goombah99 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I recall the case of a family vineyard in upstae new york run by a man named taylor (actually a descendant of the taylor in talyor wines). Taylor wines sued him for using his own name on the wine. Since he had already printed the labels, he hired some college kids to use a magic marker to black out the word "taylor".

    this gave the wine an underground cachet. So the next year he just had the lables printed with the black dash. This was great till Taylor wines sued him again, and arguning before the same judge, won the case that the black mark had become identified with "taylor".

    So the next year he left off the black mark and instead just put oil paintings of his deceased relatives on the bottles with the captions, joe TAYLOR. mary TAYLOR, etc....

    Taylor wines sued him again. So he once again he erased the name and left the pictures that every one now recognized as the taylor family portraits. .

    Taylor sued again and won. He was ordered to turn over the lables so he loaded them in the manure spreader and spread them around taylor wines office building.

    Finally he altered all the portraits to cyclopses and dared them to say he was related. Around then he also adopted the name "bully hill winery". ANd there it ended.

    I'd say lindash should just use a strategically placed Star or fig leaf to cover the last part of its name.

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
    1. Re:Been done before! by Hettch · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Sort of reminds me of something that happened around here. I don't know if this is just a regional thing or not, but a gas station chain's convenience store part of the store is called "Tobacco Road."
      With some new law that was passed tv commercials were not allowed to advertise any tobacco products. So what did tobacco road do? They simply said "Tobacco Road. We can't advertise what we sell, so we will show you ____ [insert random 50's B&W short TV clip]." And at the end, "Tobacco Road. Gas and cheap prices on stuff we can't mention here." It was all quite humorous.

  4. That's the dumbest name since... by belgar · · Score: 5, Interesting

    C#.

    Seriously, how the hell are you going to market that?

    This reminds me of the case study done on white wines. Turns out that approx 75% of white wine drinkers prefer Gewertztraminer to Chardonnay grapes. Yet Chardonnay is still the top white grape in the world. Why? Because people can't pronounce Gewurtztraminer (Guh-vurtz-trah-mihn-er), and don't want to sound stupid.

    Good luck with that dash thing, folks. Let me know how it works out for you. :-)

    --
    What does it mean to wake out of a dream
    and be wearing someone else's shorts?
    BNL, Born on a Pirate Ship (1998)
  5. Re:It does matter by MCZapf · · Score: 4, Interesting
    As I understand it...
    1. "Windows" is a generic term that cannot be trademarked.
    2. Microsoft only has a trademark on "Microsoft Windows."
    Thus, I must conclude that it's perfectly acceptable for anyone to use the term "Windows." By extension, if "Windows" itself is OK, then something that is similar is also OK (i.e. "Lindows" or "Lindows Windows").

    What wouldn't be OK is something like, "Microsoft Lindows" or "Microsoft Windowsish OS" or "Lindows Microsoft Windows".

    Side note: It occurs to me that "Linux" has been trademarked by Linus. I think he has more (not much more) of a case against the Lindows company than Microsoft does.

  6. Re:I've got a suggestion for them... by Anita+Coney · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Lindows isn't stupid and there is nothing to get away with in the US. All Lindows has to prove is that, at the time Microsoft decided to name its OS Windows, that the term windows was a generic term for all GUIs. The jury will not have to consider whether or not consumers will currently be confused, because that's not the issue.

    Lindows will certainly win their case against Microsoft.

    --
    If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.