This gnu naming isn't much of an issue, because this is stuff only technical folks handle. But if we want end-users to embrace things, we need meaningful names - meaningful to them.

Whenever I tell my friends or family to install Jellyfin so they can access my media, the look on their face says it all.

MediaMonkey - alright, I get it (yea, not FOSS)

Plex? OK, if someone then says "think MultiPlex Theaters", you get it. (Also not FOSS)

Jellyfin? What is that? Jam on a sharkfin?

These work really well:

Resilio SYNC (Yeah, not FOSS, but the name makes sense)

SyncThing (FOSS)

FolderSync (not FOSS)

Notice a trend here?

I have a printed spreadsheet for all the software I use - if I haven't touched a service for a couple months, I'll forget the meaningless name.

[–] BlueKey@fedia.io 48 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Counterarguments:

Chrome
Edge
Sky
Adobe Acrobat
Outlook

All wellknown programs or services where the name has no relation to the purpose.

[–] rooroo@feddit.org 11 points 4 days ago (2 children)

These are all major commercial services that can afford advertising or are already more than established. Most FOSS doesn’t have these perks.

[–] drosophila@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

I don't even necessarily disagree, but I think that position is unfalsifiable because if the example is a highly popular program then "that doesn't count because it's big", and if it has a small user base then "of course it's small, it has a shitty name".

[–] rooroo@feddit.org 1 points 3 days ago

Fair enough. But all of these are heavily advertised.

[–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago

This.

Nobody's going to forget the name of the browser they use every single day. But if it's some niche tool that I have to look up every time I use it once every few years, that's more difficult.

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