[Fsf-friends] Request to RedHat

[Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay]

Do you think any request to Red Hat to change the name of their distro
to Red Hat GNU/Linux will work?

We can try that as it is the most popular distro and the name can reach
many people.

Arko

hi,
some very critical issues being poked at in the mail above. one stating that
RH is the most popular distribution, based on controversial empirical
research data, i presume that it cannot be written as such. and two,the
issue of branding. loathsome as it might seem to GNU/Linux community,
branding and brand differentiation plays an important role in creating a
market. Every company invests substantially in brand building and ensuring
the brand recall. RH being a major commercial player in the game is no
exception. The logo of the blazing redhat is one of the unique signatures in
the market. That being the case, companies are usually not quite keen on
changing and/or modifying the nature and statement of their product. This is
not to say that people and companies do not change names. They do. Witness
Accenture's new avataar and a host of others. But these are cash rich
entities, question remains when it is imperative to keep the FLOSS momentum
going, is it really necessary to nitpick ? Or in other words, on a scale of
one to ten, how important do you think this advocacy is ? And how much of a
'brand dilution' will RH be keen on swallowing ? FLOSS is philosophy as much
as economics. And market economics dictate that such renaming when the brand
awareness curve is on the upswing is not really called for.
while i agree with your viewpoint the perhaps FLOSS interests would be
better served if your suggestion was incorporated, and this is also
logically connected with your earlier posts - i am a bit surprised as to why
you seem keen to take a stand on the list ! did you write to RH on a
personal level, stating your reasons and they neither replied nor responded
?
awaiting further knowledge
regards
sankarshan



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