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Did these people seriously fork GIMP just so they can change the name?! I didn't even know anyone cared about that. I've been using GIMP for many years (since

by bogwog 6y ago

Did these people seriously fork GIMP just so they can change the name?! I didn't even know anyone cared about that. I've been using GIMP for many years (since at least 2008) and have heard many valid and not very valid complaints, but never anything about the name being offensive. GIMP has a lot of problems hurting its adoption in professional settings, but the name is hardly one of them. Creating a fork just for that is bike-shedding to the extreme.

mixmastamyk 6y ago
We've used it in visual fx houses since 1998, no one ever mentioned the name. Many folks don't even know the word, it's British I think.
- hda2 6y ago
  Likewise. We've been using it in our company in a professional context for years. Coworkers who were introduced to it for the first time have never commented on or were offended by the name. Not a single one. To those who keep complaining about the name: Do you think git's name should also be changed?
  - iudqnolq 6y ago
    Yes, I do think it should be changed as well.
    - hda2 6y ago
      Fortunately, most don't.
Kye 6y ago
GIMP devs and fans for 24 years when people bring the name up: "If you don't like the name, fork it." What's the actual problem here?
- sigzero 6y ago
  Only a "woke" one really.
  - Kye 6y ago
    I know what each of these words mean individually but I have no idea what you're trying to say.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - a1369209993 6y ago
      "Woke" is a colloquialism roughly analogous to "politically correct", not literally "awake" as in "woke up"; what they're trying to say (I assume, I'm not them or psychic) is that the problem is purely one of people manufacturing outrage over something innocuous, similar to eg, people claiming that using the standard Lena image for image compression examples is sexism.
      - deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
      - Kye 6y ago
        This concern is older than this term and even older than this usage. What could "woke" as misused by the latest reactionary movement possibly have to do with it? https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/woke-meaning-origin https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/woke-meaning-o...
        a1369209993 6y ago
        I'm not sure I'd call social justice "reactionary", per se, but: > What could [that sense of "woke"] have to do with it? Because you asked (well, expressed confusion about) what sigzero was trying to say, and it's pretty clear that's the word-sense they were using?
russholmes 6y ago
It is an unpleasant slur both in UK and US English. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/gimp https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/gimp
- romanoderoma 6y ago
  Scala means ladder in Italian and Sega means handjob The French Word fiche means casino token and has been popularized by American Casinos and movies, yet in Italian it reads fike and it's a quite vulgar slur which literally means vaginas but it's used to say "nice looking girls" It's the plural of fica, which sounds exactly like the Swedish fika, that means coffee break You can imagine how that sound for an Italian to be offered a fika Lumia means prostitute in Spanish BTW a preservative in French is a condom... The world does not speak English as a native language Edit: but, as usual, judging from the immediate downvote Americans won't accept that they are only 5% of the World population...
  - bhrgunatha 6y ago
    > Lumia means prostitute in Spanish I had a few Spanish friends while I lived in Australia who found The Mitsubishi Pajero hilarious. It seems really odd to me that it's still named that considering that Spanish is so widely spoken. https://translate.google.com/?hl=en#view=home&op=translate&sl=es&tl=en&text=pajero https://translate.google.com/?hl=en#view=home&op=translate&s...
    - pilaf 6y ago
      It actually got renamed to Mitsubishi Montero for the Latin American market.
  - kelnos 6y ago
    The open source world, by and large, uses English as its lingua franca. Of course we're well aware that sometimes commonplace words in one language can mean something offensive in another language. But I think it highly likely that the original developers of the GIMP knew exactly what it meant in English and probably chose the name because of its English meaning, as a joke that may have been funny in geek circles back then, but now we realize is just in poor taste. (I will give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they were probably more targeting the sexual connotations of "gimp" and weren't making fun of physically disabled people.) The downvotes are likely because it seems like you have an axe to grind about English being the de facto common language of the internet, not because people think you don't have a good point to make or because of some silly nationalistic reason.
mackrevinack 6y ago
offence has nothing to do with it for me. there's just a pretty good chance i will start being called the "gimp" around the office if i ever suggested it for something, so i never have

by bogwog 6y ago

mixmastamyk 6y ago

We've used it in visual fx houses since 1998, no one ever mentioned the name. Many folks don't even know the word, it's British I think.

hda2 6y ago
Likewise. We've been using it in our company in a professional context for years. Coworkers who were introduced to it for the first time have never commented on or were offended by the name. Not a single one. To those who keep complaining about the name: Do you think git's name should also be changed?
- iudqnolq 6y ago
  Yes, I do think it should be changed as well.
  - hda2 6y ago
    Fortunately, most don't.

Kye 6y ago

GIMP devs and fans for 24 years when people bring the name up: "If you don't like the name, fork it." What's the actual problem here?

sigzero 6y ago
Only a "woke" one really.
- Kye 6y ago
  I know what each of these words mean individually but I have no idea what you're trying to say.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - a1369209993 6y ago
    "Woke" is a colloquialism roughly analogous to "politically correct", not literally "awake" as in "woke up"; what they're trying to say (I assume, I'm not them or psychic) is that the problem is purely one of people manufacturing outrage over something innocuous, similar to eg, people claiming that using the standard Lena image for image compression examples is sexism.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - Kye 6y ago
      This concern is older than this term and even older than this usage. What could "woke" as misused by the latest reactionary movement possibly have to do with it? https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/woke-meaning-origin https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/woke-meaning-o...
      - a1369209993 6y ago
        I'm not sure I'd call social justice "reactionary", per se, but: > What could [that sense of "woke"] have to do with it? Because you asked (well, expressed confusion about) what sigzero was trying to say, and it's pretty clear that's the word-sense they were using?

russholmes 6y ago

It is an unpleasant slur both in UK and US English. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/gimp https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/gimp

romanoderoma 6y ago
Scala means ladder in Italian and Sega means handjob The French Word fiche means casino token and has been popularized by American Casinos and movies, yet in Italian it reads fike and it's a quite vulgar slur which literally means vaginas but it's used to say "nice looking girls" It's the plural of fica, which sounds exactly like the Swedish fika, that means coffee break You can imagine how that sound for an Italian to be offered a fika Lumia means prostitute in Spanish BTW a preservative in French is a condom... The world does not speak English as a native language Edit: but, as usual, judging from the immediate downvote Americans won't accept that they are only 5% of the World population...
- bhrgunatha 6y ago
  > Lumia means prostitute in Spanish I had a few Spanish friends while I lived in Australia who found The Mitsubishi Pajero hilarious. It seems really odd to me that it's still named that considering that Spanish is so widely spoken. https://translate.google.com/?hl=en#view=home&op=translate&sl=es&tl=en&text=pajero https://translate.google.com/?hl=en#view=home&op=translate&s...
  - pilaf 6y ago
    It actually got renamed to Mitsubishi Montero for the Latin American market.
- kelnos 6y ago
  The open source world, by and large, uses English as its lingua franca. Of course we're well aware that sometimes commonplace words in one language can mean something offensive in another language. But I think it highly likely that the original developers of the GIMP knew exactly what it meant in English and probably chose the name because of its English meaning, as a joke that may have been funny in geek circles back then, but now we realize is just in poor taste. (I will give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they were probably more targeting the sexual connotations of "gimp" and weren't making fun of physically disabled people.) The downvotes are likely because it seems like you have an axe to grind about English being the de facto common language of the internet, not because people think you don't have a good point to make or because of some silly nationalistic reason.

mackrevinack 6y ago

offence has nothing to do with it for me. there's just a pretty good chance i will start being called the "gimp" around the office if i ever suggested it for something, so i never have