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Lindows Agreeing to Change Name
xandroid writes "It looks like Lindows.com has thrown in the towel for the fight to keep its name: the Seattle Times reports that they 'would not continue a worldwide legal battle with Microsoft.' They will announce the new name next Wednesday, although a favorite is Lindos -- 'because it's the W that is causing all the problems'." Update: 04/07 19:37 GMT by S : This is worth clarifying - Michael Robertson is claiming "...the company will go by a different name outside the U.S. until it can win the right to use the Lindows name internationally."
Lindizzle!
That's what i was going to ask. Windows does not instantly imply Microsoft. To me, windows are used to look out of. Although there are similarities which are pretty funny. Windows are fragile and break easily. I guess the software is aptly named but i can't see how they can use windows as a trademark without the microsoft. IANAL but i was always curious about that.
Der Tod ist der einzige Weg hier raus!
or has it been taken already? See Merriam-Webster for how it is currently used in English.
or some other foreign language word for Windows. The average american will have no idea what it means but that is ok, they still have blinking clocks on their VCR's as well.
I make my face look like this and concerned words come out.
Lindos Electronics make high-end pro-audio test equipment. They have done for over 25 years.
Giving a more respectable name will give it a better reputation, and will make it more recognisable as a brand. Red Hat, Mandrake, SuSE and Java Desktop all are famous Linux brands, Lindows will have to follow in their footsteps!
I have a fetish for traffic cones
LinuxWorld reports one of the better suggestions:
"[Robertson] doesn't reveal whether he'll be adopting the suggestion to change it to "Lindos" and make his new slogan "Because it's the W that's causing all the problems" - as suggested by one Lindows supporter."
Oddly enough, in various domain-name cases, it has been held by the court that, e.g. "MicrosoftSucks.com" is confusingly similar to "Microsoft.com", because a non-native speaker of English might not understand the word "Sucks", and so think that MicrosoftSucks.com was an official Microsoft site.
perl -e 'fork||print for split//,"hahahaha"'
LindOs (put a line above the O). That way, it's pronounced exactly the same.
No, his error was assuming foreign courts would react as the USA courts have, and find "Windows" a generic term. Anyone who's followed the Asterix case would know better. Apparantly those dudes have a trademark on any word that ends in the letter "x". But for some reason they haven't sued Xerox.
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
When Inkscape forked from Sodipodi, we were fortunate enough to have folks with both solid technical and marketing/graphic design backgrounds, so we put a lot of thought into branding up-front, as well as the technical issues.
That probably wouldn't have happened years ago -- "Inkscape" could just as easily have been named "VectorPIMP".
There's a similar increase in Human Interface factors in recent OSS work. Classic projects like the GIMP are simply beholden to old (bad) UI and marketing decisions.
So, just give it time. Things are improving.
DNA just wants to be free...
I think you meant "L i n d o vv s"
:)
That's actually a pretty good idea
My other car is first.
"We all know that Microsoft doesn't have a leg to stand on regarding rhyming OS names."
That's not true. There may be a weakness there, but saying they don't have a leg to stand on is ridiculous. Don't believe me? Then think about a company you don't hate, like Palm. Why is their trademark okay but Windows isn't?
That's not the real crux of the matter, though. Simply put, Lindows' motivation was malicious. Here's a few little facts:
- Microsoft has had the Windows trademark for a few years now. Not to mention that their de-facto monopoly status strengthens the notion that they own that name.
- Lindows is meant to be very much like Windows, to the point that users can have a hard time telling the difference, especially if they went to Walmart and bought one of those PCs.
- The CEO of Lindows put up $250,000 to reward somebody for hacking the X-BOX. I don't know if that would make it into court over this matter or not, but he still intentionally set out to do Microsoft harm.
It would be awful if Lindows won this case without any reprecussions for the intentional bullying they were trying to do. I know it's fun to hate Microsoft and all, but this form of litiguous bs is exactly what you're mad at SCO for. Don't let Lindows ruin the reputation of the Linux/Open Source Communities.
"Derp de derp."
Lindows = Windows, Lindos = DOS
Coincedence? Microsoft won't think so.
And the new name will be announced on a Lednesday ...