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View Full Version : [Debian] Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian


Stskeeps
2008-08-04, 21:22
There's a bit of discussion going about that we can't really call something that installs Debian and puts packages on top that makes it working properly on the tablet, anything with Debian in the name (see http://www.debian.org/trademark and such).

Since we build the system with properitary components for basic tablet support (by the rule of thumb that the people who install it, already has the license to backup and use the components the Nokia tablet contains in firmware, as part of anything running on their own tablets), we would probably never be able to be accepted as an "official" Debian port and hence be able to use the name.

So, what I'm basically asking is if anyone has a good idea for what we could rename the project to, as I don't want any problems regarding trademark use or fights with debian-legal@ :)


What the project does:

* Provide an alternative operating system or chroot environment, for the Nokia Internet Tablets that is based upon the great work done by the Debian people (http://www.ubuntu.com/community/ubuntustory/debian , the "About Debian" section, seems to fit)

* Provide open source (BSD/GPL, etc.) software for all components in the project

* To use mainly open source components and only use properitary components if use of the operating system without these would severely limit the user experience and hardware abilities.

* Provide an open environment for including ideas and solutions for the distribution from contributors in the distribution, for other tablet users to have use for, both in terms of a flexible installer for multiple purposes and development model.


So, rules for suggestions, they can't contain Nokia, Debian or other OS/Tablet trademarks in the name, and should be at most one word, and maybe an attached tagline.

In advance, thanks for any suggestions coming in, as my creativity isn't as good as it has been regarding names :)

Wes Doobner
2008-08-04, 21:36
Maebian....

briand
2008-08-04, 21:36
Let me be the first, then, to suggest

Debbie

;) The tablet is a diminutive linux system, and Debbie is one of the diminutive forms of Deborah.

fatalsaint
2008-08-04, 21:38
LiNIT
Linux for NIT's

:D

(I am terrible at naming things lol)

iamthewalrus
2008-08-04, 21:52
Let me be the first, then, to suggest

Debbie

;) The tablet is a diminutive linux system, and Debbie is one of the diminutive forms of Deborah.

Erm.. well Debian is basically the acronym of Debra and Ian, so that way you leave out Ian Murdock, the founder of Debian and end up with his ex-wife.

RobbH
2008-08-04, 22:28
Tabian.

Tofitad. (This OS for Internet Tablets ain't Debian)

geneven
2008-08-04, 22:34
Naibed. The N is obviously for Nokia and ...

qole
2008-08-05, 06:58
Well, the most descriptive and non-trademark-infringing thing that comes to mind is "armel", since that is the ArmEabiPort (http://wiki.debian.org/ArmEabiPort#head-258d8691486de3b2e8c3fb8de13292cc91ec1bb1)'s choice of architecture name. Of course, the maemo components also use that term, probably for the same reason that I suggested it, so it can be a bit confusing... :(

But I really believe that we can safely use the Debian name for the project, since:

we're we're not a business and we're not selling anything
we are using almost entirely unmodified Debian packages, downloaded from Debian repositories
the packages containing non-Debian components are only required when the user wishes to boot to the Debian-based system (not if the user wishes to simply chroot)
the non-Debian, non-Nokia components are mostly installation-related, and partly architecture-specific configuration. This is not really a different distribution, purely a project to install and run the Debian distribution on a specific hardware set.


So I still think we could call the project TabletDebian or something like that. I believe we could effortlessly defend the use of "Debian" in our name. Using "Nokia" or "maemo" might be a problem, however.

debernardis
2008-08-05, 07:06
I like Tabian, seems quite explicative

codeMonkey
2008-08-05, 09:01
I like Tabian and Maebian.

qwerty12
2008-08-05, 09:32
Debia

Deb + ia (from Nokia)

Nokian

Nok + ian (from Debian)

I sense an odd coincidence about how those names are formed...

rik
2008-08-05, 09:47
Tabian is nice, but it is way too much similar to Taliban (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taliban)
Debbie sounds nice too, but it would be hard to find in search engines


My humble idea:

Nittux Linux
Nitlux

timsamoff
2008-08-05, 11:44
I like Maebian.

-T.

Ism
2008-08-05, 11:51
DebIT (case sensitive (because IT is Linux) Debian Internet Tablet) :D

Jaffa
2008-08-05, 11:59
As qole says, this is primarily an installer to allow you to install a Debian environment on your tablets.

"Debian Installer for Maemo".

This also benefits from fitting with the new Maemo trademark guidelines.

b-man
2008-08-05, 13:49
I'd call it Debin :D.

cheve
2008-08-05, 14:16
"Morpheus" sounds cool to me:D

Stskeeps
2008-08-05, 20:10
Debbie is a "okay" name but maybe too similar.. even if there's some degree of humour in it being the ex wife of the founder of Debian.

The spins on Tabian (Tablian or Taliban!) are interesting too - Tablian isn't half bad either. Mae* names may be problematic as it's close to Maemo, and if there's anything N-D isn't, it's Maemo :)

Other suggestions from me:

Parasol, Beta4 :>, Navi (Serial Experiments Lain anyone?), Navian, Tabletin, Eva/Eve, Sofia (wisdom), Deblet (Debian+Tablet) maybe?

fatalsaint
2008-08-05, 20:15
I like Nokian, and Deblet... but Nokian may not work as it's too close to Nokia.. check out what happened to Lindows *cough*.. I mean Linspire...

daperl
2008-08-05, 20:53
Dan Aykroyd and I vote for Slagathor. Slaggy for short. Cryoborg is another one of my favorites.

qole
2008-08-05, 23:42
...Since we build the system with properitary components for basic tablet support (by the rule of thumb that the people who install it, already has the license to backup and use the components the Nokia tablet contains in firmware, as part of anything running on their own tablets)...

By the way, I hope you aren't actually re-packaging any of the Nokia-provided proprietary pieces... That would be some pretty thin ice you're skating on. I hope you're making a package for Maemo that mounts your Debian install and copies the files from Maemo to Debian as part of the pre/post install scripts. That way, the user must have the files already, and you're just copying the user's files on the user's device...

"Slagathor: The Debian Installer for Maemo"

urnass
2008-08-06, 01:19
I'll throw out two names

Daemo
Debnit or DebNIT- spin on debin & debit suggestions

If no one likes those, my votes go for (in order of preference):
Tabian,
Debin and
Deblet

Stskeeps
2008-08-06, 06:50
By the way, I hope you aren't actually re-packaging any of the Nokia-provided proprietary pieces... That would be some pretty thin ice you're skating on. I hope you're making a package for Maemo that mounts your Debian install and copies the files from Maemo to Debian as part of the pre/post install scripts. That way, the user must have the files already, and you're just copying the user's files on the user's device...

"Slagathor: The Debian Installer for Maemo"

Well, the direction is wrong but it's along those lines - the installer has support for what we call fill-in packages, which is a description of a Debian package with a script 'nit-fillin'. When installing, the script is loaded and files from firmware/initfs / downloads are filled in the package, and dpkg-deb --build is run and put in a local apt repository for the Debian apt-get to get it from.

The process cannot complete without having the files actually there and having a OS2008 installation on your firmware / an actual internet tablet (from our code perspective). For files where we get packages from the repositories, we apply same method as is open sourced in the apt-get patches from Maemo, so it requires having a valid component_version. Those checks would put us in same category as let's say apt-getting those packages, or backing up your firmware to MMC, as we don't in any way distribute copyright infriging material in our installation and base packages (which are just scripts).

If people choose to redistribute some of the firmware-based .debs in their local apt repository it would not be legal, obviously, and I've noted this on the wiki since the start.

stale
2008-08-06, 08:05
I like "Debian Installer for Maemo".

If there are trademark or other "legal" issues I suggest:
- Nobian (because we are sorry we can't call it Debian)
- Tablian (a lot more explicative than Tabian, IMHO)

xopher_mc
2008-08-06, 08:21
I suggest "Handy", cause it would by handy in your hand!

fanoush
2008-08-06, 08:30
- Tablian (a lot more explicative than Tabian, IMHO)
Too dangerous (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taliban). One typo and you are marked terrorist and your tablet gets confiscated on US border :-)

BTW, nice bikeshed color (http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/misc.html#BIKESHED-PAINTING) thread, good to see laws (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_Law_of_Triviality) working ;-) No offense meant, I know this IS important, that's why I joined :-)

Stskeeps
2008-08-06, 08:56
Too
BTW, nice bikeshed color (http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/misc.html#BIKESHED-PAINTING) thread, good to see laws (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_Law_of_Triviality) working ;-) No offense meant, I know this IS important, that's why I joined :-)

Hehe, yeah, this is a bit of a bikeshed colour thread - but also meant in a bit of fun to find a good name that people can recognize - not a important code change :) The actual change is, indeed, editing a few wiki pages and some .py files.

Stskeeps
2008-08-06, 09:08
Deblet is a bit interesting and is sticking with me a bit - in terms of saying "my Deblet" for instance - so maybe calling it "Deblet Installer" and Deblet being the manifestation of a tablet running the Deblet image, "making my tablet a Deblet" - a tablet that can run the distro (both in terms of chroot and booting - "Deblet Appplications" menu in Maemo maybe?)

Johnx
2008-08-06, 16:08
Deblet sounds fine to me. :) It doesn't seem to have many results in google either, which means it should be easily searchable. I kinda liked the sound of "DEbian for Nokia Tablets" or DENT for short. :D But I'm pefectly happy with Deblet.

qole
2008-08-06, 16:47
Another vote for Deblet here. And I say the bikeshed should be green.

Stskeeps
2008-08-06, 18:54
Well then - I think "The Deblet Project" is a good umbrella for everything in the project - "my Deblet" as in a tablet being a Deblet (running the deblet image), and Deblet Installer, etc, and Deblet Applications menu for chroot maybe :)

I'll go edit my wiki pages then. Thanks for all the good suggestions and discussions :)

b-man
2008-08-06, 19:52
And you put a image of a n800 with a screenshot photoshoped in above the title?....... Hmmmmm.... :p

Stskeeps
2008-08-06, 19:55
Oi, no photoshop, It'd be a lot prettier then :P It's done with MS Paint ;)

timsamoff
2008-08-07, 18:39
I created a logo if you want it (I also have a larger source file that can be converted to other formats). While this forum doesn't show it, it is a transparent PNG.

Tim

Stskeeps
2008-08-08, 11:13
Thanks for the great logo :) Hope it's not too easily confused with the Debian logo though ;) I've set the logo on the Deblet project page, and credited you properly (I hope..)

EDIT: Could you perhaps make a version that does not include the swirl logo? I'm chickening out a bit since the discussion was to make sure there would be no confusion / trademark issues, and the logo has a rather ambigious license when it comes to referring to something that isn't Debian. The text and font and star should be just fine though. A new logo instead of the swirl one or the likes is also okay.

timsamoff
2008-08-08, 13:33
Done. ;)

-T.

Benson
2008-08-08, 17:54
Thanks for the great logo :) Hope it's not too easily confused with the Debian logo though ;) I've set the logo on the Deblet project page, and credited you properly (I hope..)

EDIT: Could you perhaps make a version that does not include the swirl logo? I'm chickening out a bit since the discussion was to make sure there would be no confusion / trademark issues, and the logo has a rather ambigious license when it comes to referring to something that isn't Debian. The text and font and star should be just fine though. A new logo instead of the swirl one or the likes is also okay.

Has anyone contacted Debian about this? If the license (yes, the one I can't be bothered to go read) is that ambiguous, it's possible they interpret it loosely enough to make this a non-issue...

daperl
2008-08-08, 19:23
Hey Johnx, it's against internet law to leave the caption off that avatar. I'm sorry, but you're gonna have to put it in your signature. Rules are rules.

2272

qole
2008-08-08, 20:01
As I said before, I really don't believe there'll be any trademark issues at all with this project, but, after looking at them both, I actually like the logo better without the swirl anyway. Probably because I've never been a huge fan of the swirl...

Tim, what about an icon? Any ideas? You come up with a snazzy icon, I'll use it in my menu items for the chroot project.

timsamoff
2008-08-11, 01:45
The Debian license allows for using the swirl and the logo in affiliated projects (Debian invokes an "Open Use Logo License (http://www.debian.org/logos/)" with this particular graphical element). There is no issue. But, I like it without the swirl too.

I'll see if I can come up with an icon tomorrow.

-T.

qole
2008-08-11, 04:06
...(Debian inflicts an "Open Use Logo License (http://www.debian.org/logos/)" with this particular graphical element)...

Hehheheh.... "inflicts" ... I would say any "open use" license would be more of a case of "blesses with" than "inflicts"...

Thanks for your graphical work!

timsamoff
2008-08-11, 14:00
Right... I was going to change that to "invokes" today (which I meant, but I was in a hurry). Of course, now that you've commented on it, changing it won't make sense... But, I'm changing it anyway! :p

Tim

timsamoff
2008-08-11, 19:28
Behold: the Deblet icon set. :p

(Included pixel-dimensions: 256, 128, 96, 64, 32, 16.)

-T.

qole
2008-08-15, 00:29
The 64 pixel version is perfect for all of the OS2008 menus:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3200/2764260228_dc481ab4c0_o.png (http://www.flickr.com/photos/qole2/2764260228/)

Stskeeps
2008-08-25, 20:33
Icons now in use in Deblet Installer as well :)