3 ms·

Hey, so I can’t imagine you’ve never used or heard of GNU’s Screen: why did you choose to use a conflicting name for software that’s essentially in the same spa

by xemoka 7y ago

Hey, so I can’t imagine you’ve never used or heard of GNU’s Screen: why did you choose to use a conflicting name for software that’s essentially in the same space? PS edit: this isn’t glib. I’m genuinely curious why, who and how this choice was made.

jsherwani 7y ago
Until this post, I hadn’t thought of GNU Screen at all. It isn’t a tool that I’ve used in more than 5 years, and is not top of mind for me at all. Also, no one in our private beta ever raised this concern. Screen just switched to public beta today, and the idea is for us to get feedback on issues we may not have seen before. This is a great example of such an issue! And as I’ve said elsewhere, if this continues to be an issue, we will change it. It’s not in our interest to have customer confusion either.
- xemoka 7y ago
  Thanks for the reply. What kind of market analysis did you do before building this, err, again (and better)? You support Linux (well!), I’m surprised your beta testers didn’t say anything. That’s an interesting problem —I wonder what other blind spots like this can be avoided.
  - jsherwani 7y ago
    The main market analysis was asking users what their pain points were and solving them. Screenhero didn’t have robust drawing, for instance. Admittedly, we only had a handful of Linux users in our private beta, but still, none of them mentioned the GNU tool.
  - cdmoyer 7y ago
    Heh. I use gnu screen daily. Saw this and immediate downloaded it (I missed screenhero so much) and got coworkers to use it with me, and never considered the name collision. I'm surprised by the number of comments about it.
- ycombobreaker 7y ago
  Why would it "stop" being an issue? GNU screen is not going anywhere. Maybe you'll stop hearing complaints once all initial grievances are aired and it's obvious that you don't care, but it will continue to cause confusion in the workplace. Just today I was recommending (GNU) screen to a coworker to address transient outages with a remote connection. It would get pretty annoying to constantly clarify which screen I mean, as they are both used in the same circumstances.
  - holler 7y ago
    Probably 99% of their users will either have never heard of gnu screen, or don’t care. It’s such a common word that it’s silly to think one thing “owns” it any more than the next.
- e12e 7y ago
  That's a little bizzare, but ok. Gnu screen has low latency, works well on Linux and bsds, works well with vim and emacs, works well for pair programming? I'm not sure how good the mouse support/sharing is - but I think selection and cursor is shared fine? Don't get me wrong, I've got lots of colleagues who use various other editors, like vs code - but... This isn't just a case of pre-existing software with a similar name - combined with ssh, gnu screen is arguably superior for pair bugfixing in production, for example (multiple ppl can ssh into the same server). I get that this is "like gnu screen, but for xorg/Wayland - and without any support for resuming remote sessions" - just sounds like an odd pitch - as you say you especially want to target Linux support...
dstaley 7y ago
I honestly don't get why people are getting so caught up on the name. The number of people who use screen is so small compared to the target market (which encompasses anyone doing work on a computer) that I highly doubt any significant number of people will be confused. If you're intelligent enough to use screen, surely you're intelligent enough to understand the difference between a terminal app and an app that shares your screen.
- xemoka 7y ago
  Because it sticks out like a sore thumb, and has trademark problems irrespective of its reuse. And you know, everyone deals with naming things, so we can all relate and pull from our own experiences.
  - dstaley 7y ago
    > sticks out like a sore thumb Again, the number of people who this impacts is so small that it's hardly significant. Sure, here on HN I'm sure it seems that everyone is confused, but we're hardly a representative sample here. > has trademark problems Honestly I don't buy this. When you trademark something, you do so in a very specific manner, and I think Screen's market is specific enough as to defend a trademark in the screen sharing/collaboration segment _should they even choose to trademark the name_, which they can easily choose not to do.
    - jsherwani 7y ago
      To be honest, I’ve never considered trademarking the name. We just want to build a product that works and is loved by its users. It’s really quite simple! :)

by xemoka 7y ago

jsherwani 7y ago

Until this post, I hadn’t thought of GNU Screen at all. It isn’t a tool that I’ve used in more than 5 years, and is not top of mind for me at all. Also, no one in our private beta ever raised this concern. Screen just switched to public beta today, and the idea is for us to get feedback on issues we may not have seen before. This is a great example of such an issue! And as I’ve said elsewhere, if this continues to be an issue, we will change it. It’s not in our interest to have customer confusion either.

xemoka 7y ago
Thanks for the reply. What kind of market analysis did you do before building this, err, again (and better)? You support Linux (well!), I’m surprised your beta testers didn’t say anything. That’s an interesting problem —I wonder what other blind spots like this can be avoided.
- jsherwani 7y ago
  The main market analysis was asking users what their pain points were and solving them. Screenhero didn’t have robust drawing, for instance. Admittedly, we only had a handful of Linux users in our private beta, but still, none of them mentioned the GNU tool.
- cdmoyer 7y ago
  Heh. I use gnu screen daily. Saw this and immediate downloaded it (I missed screenhero so much) and got coworkers to use it with me, and never considered the name collision. I'm surprised by the number of comments about it.
ycombobreaker 7y ago
Why would it "stop" being an issue? GNU screen is not going anywhere. Maybe you'll stop hearing complaints once all initial grievances are aired and it's obvious that you don't care, but it will continue to cause confusion in the workplace. Just today I was recommending (GNU) screen to a coworker to address transient outages with a remote connection. It would get pretty annoying to constantly clarify which screen I mean, as they are both used in the same circumstances.
- holler 7y ago
  Probably 99% of their users will either have never heard of gnu screen, or don’t care. It’s such a common word that it’s silly to think one thing “owns” it any more than the next.
e12e 7y ago
That's a little bizzare, but ok. Gnu screen has low latency, works well on Linux and bsds, works well with vim and emacs, works well for pair programming? I'm not sure how good the mouse support/sharing is - but I think selection and cursor is shared fine? Don't get me wrong, I've got lots of colleagues who use various other editors, like vs code - but... This isn't just a case of pre-existing software with a similar name - combined with ssh, gnu screen is arguably superior for pair bugfixing in production, for example (multiple ppl can ssh into the same server). I get that this is "like gnu screen, but for xorg/Wayland - and without any support for resuming remote sessions" - just sounds like an odd pitch - as you say you especially want to target Linux support...

dstaley 7y ago

I honestly don't get why people are getting so caught up on the name. The number of people who use screen is so small compared to the target market (which encompasses anyone doing work on a computer) that I highly doubt any significant number of people will be confused. If you're intelligent enough to use screen, surely you're intelligent enough to understand the difference between a terminal app and an app that shares your screen.

xemoka 7y ago
Because it sticks out like a sore thumb, and has trademark problems irrespective of its reuse. And you know, everyone deals with naming things, so we can all relate and pull from our own experiences.
- dstaley 7y ago
  > sticks out like a sore thumb Again, the number of people who this impacts is so small that it's hardly significant. Sure, here on HN I'm sure it seems that everyone is confused, but we're hardly a representative sample here. > has trademark problems Honestly I don't buy this. When you trademark something, you do so in a very specific manner, and I think Screen's market is specific enough as to defend a trademark in the screen sharing/collaboration segment _should they even choose to trademark the name_, which they can easily choose not to do.
  - jsherwani 7y ago
    To be honest, I’ve never considered trademarking the name. We just want to build a product that works and is loved by its users. It’s really quite simple! :)