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If the name continues to be a source of confusion over time, we’ll happily revisit it.

scrollaway 7y ago
My weasel words alert is ringing. For it not to "continue to be" a source of confusion, then it has to "stop" being a source of confusion. What makes you think it'll stop? GNU screen won't stop being on millions of machines, nor will it suddenly stop being a popular tool. I suggest a cute acronym, instead. How about "SSH", for "Screen SHaring"?
- vntok 7y ago
  The HN crowd is not a representative sample of the market. People here on HN will hate for a day or two, then they will turn their anger and cynicism to another cause, therefore that name will stop being a source of confusion :) Seriously, a few days from now noone will complain anymore.
  - scrollaway 7y ago
    The HN crowd is a fairly representative sample of a significant portion of the product's potential users. Otherwise, this would not have been a Show HN.
    - vntok 7y ago
      I don't understand how your second sentence logically follows the first. Where does the "significant" adjective come from?
    - mrlala 7y ago
      No it's not.. I am a developer but my god it seems that 90% of the people here are of the extreme privacy + low level programmers who think that any programmer outside of a phd in computer science isn't doing it right because they doing dissertation type work everytime they code. This is basically slashdot with a different color scheme..
mushufasa 7y ago
Speaking from my own experience as a founder, it's hard to change your name once you have an ounce of traction. If you're just launching and anticipate a problem I would recommend considering taking advantage of the opportunity now. It will also be very hard for you to trademark your name.
- vntok 7y ago
  Is the GNU screen utility trademarked? In what capacity?
  - danieldk 7y ago
    IANAL, but in most legislations you do not have to register a trademark for it to be valid. It is important that you defend you trademark, and you will lose your right to a trademark if you fail to do so. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark#Enforcing_rights https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark#Enforcing_rights I do agree with those saying that in the wider audience, GNU screen does not mean anything, including (probably) the large armies of Windows developers. Besides that you should use tmux anyway ;).
  - mushufasa 7y ago
    the issue is that you can't easily trademark a common word. It's possible (e.g. Apple for computers) but you run into problems. Apple ran into some notorious trademark problems. Trademarks don't need to be officially filed to be real in common law -- you just have to use a distinguishing mark for a certain period of time. so the GNU/FSF screen would have rights to Screen in the computer program industry even if they haven't officially filed. Filing just helps you defend a trademark, it's not strictly necessary.
exhilaration 7y ago
I'm going to get downvoted for this but the corporate folks that will eventually pull out their credit cards and pay you for this service have never heard of the screen command much less used a command line interface. I think you should stick with the name.

My weasel words alert is ringing. For it not to "continue to be" a source of confusion, then it has to "stop" being a source of confusion. What makes you think it'll stop? GNU screen won't stop being on millions of machines, nor will it suddenly stop being a popular tool. I suggest a cute acronym, instead. How about "SSH", for "Screen SHaring"?

vntok 7y ago
The HN crowd is not a representative sample of the market. People here on HN will hate for a day or two, then they will turn their anger and cynicism to another cause, therefore that name will stop being a source of confusion :) Seriously, a few days from now noone will complain anymore.
- scrollaway 7y ago
  The HN crowd is a fairly representative sample of a significant portion of the product's potential users. Otherwise, this would not have been a Show HN.
  - vntok 7y ago
    I don't understand how your second sentence logically follows the first. Where does the "significant" adjective come from?
  - mrlala 7y ago
    No it's not.. I am a developer but my god it seems that 90% of the people here are of the extreme privacy + low level programmers who think that any programmer outside of a phd in computer science isn't doing it right because they doing dissertation type work everytime they code. This is basically slashdot with a different color scheme..

mushufasa 7y ago

Speaking from my own experience as a founder, it's hard to change your name once you have an ounce of traction. If you're just launching and anticipate a problem I would recommend considering taking advantage of the opportunity now. It will also be very hard for you to trademark your name.

vntok 7y ago
Is the GNU screen utility trademarked? In what capacity?
- danieldk 7y ago
  IANAL, but in most legislations you do not have to register a trademark for it to be valid. It is important that you defend you trademark, and you will lose your right to a trademark if you fail to do so. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark#Enforcing_rights https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark#Enforcing_rights I do agree with those saying that in the wider audience, GNU screen does not mean anything, including (probably) the large armies of Windows developers. Besides that you should use tmux anyway ;).
- mushufasa 7y ago
  the issue is that you can't easily trademark a common word. It's possible (e.g. Apple for computers) but you run into problems. Apple ran into some notorious trademark problems. Trademarks don't need to be officially filed to be real in common law -- you just have to use a distinguishing mark for a certain period of time. so the GNU/FSF screen would have rights to Screen in the computer program industry even if they haven't officially filed. Filing just helps you defend a trademark, it's not strictly necessary.

exhilaration 7y ago

I'm going to get downvoted for this but the corporate folks that will eventually pull out their credit cards and pay you for this service have never heard of the screen command much less used a command line interface. I think you should stick with the name.