Gaim Renamed — Now Pidgin IM

An anonymous reader writes "Announced on the Gaim mailing lists earlier today, the Gaim project is being renamed. This follows a lengthy and, unfortunately, secret legal process with AOL, which also prevented any code releases except betas. The project will now be known as Pidgin IM. Development is being migrated off of sourceforge.net as well and is now being hosted on developer.pidgin.im"

It's funny because

[Anonymous Coward]

IM-speak is a lot like a pidgin language.

Powned him?

[CrazyJim1]

Pidgeoned him!

About Time

[stoolpigeon]

I for one welcome our new pigeon overlords.

Tomorrow's headlines

[Eudial]

Tomorrow's headlines:

"AOL Instant Messenger changes name to Idgin"

Uh oh!

[Funkcikle]

Ixnay on the amenay angechay!

Re:What's a Pidgin?

[Eudial]

Am I the only one who had to say the new name outloud about 3 times before I could actually say it?

Yes.

Look out for Pelican

[cxreg]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T569Z8t8ZA0 [youtube.com]

Re:What's a Pidgin?

[Anonymous Coward]

PIGOWNED!

Re:Whilst a shame...

[Exatron]

"a rose by any other name would smell as sweet"

Not if they called it a stenchblossom.

Re:IP and tradmarks... again

[maxume]

You can't change the world on an empty stomach, or something like that anyway.

What's wrong with this guys?

[aldo.gs]

Do they think this is some kind of GAIM?

Wait. wait...

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

does this mean it'll add, "Yah" at the end of all of my IMs?

I'm a nerd...

[Fortyseven]

...I immediately thought of Voltron instead of a bird. Doh.

Re:Late April Fools? Please...

[Profane MuthaFucka]

Are you suggesting that my new mail program called "Hey Boss I Fucked Your Wife" should be renamed? It's a perfectly good name I think.

Re:Late April Fools? Please...

[Jeff DeMaagd]

Actually, it's a good name for AOL's IM program. Because whenever I tried to use it, I get the feeling that the computer would waddle over and take a dump on my shoes.

Re:Can't wait to see 2.0.0

[Eccles]

He is jesting, but don't call him "Shirley."

Re:Powned him?

[Matt Perry]

Mi ting se 'pidgin' hemi wan gudfala nem blong givim long kaen software olsem. Smol tingting blong mi nomo.

What? My mother was a saint! Get out!

Re:For those wondering what Pidgin means

[heinousjay]

I'm sorry, did you just suggest people watch two hours of Richard Stallman on a Saturday night? Dear god, I know this is Slashdot but let's not go too far.

Re:Can't wait to see 2.0.0

[NonSequor]

How do you rattle a flag?

Re:IP and tradmarks... again

[Anonymous Coward]

Morons 1 - Dumbasses 0

Yay!

(pwned)

Contract

[Reed Solomon]

Did the contract also specify that they use the dumbest possible name instead? Honestly. Shoulda called it Chazwozzer IM.

Re:Can't wait to see 2.0.0

[zanglang]

You shake it until the cloth and adornments goes "Whipssh-Whipssh" on the pole. :P Okay, this is Slashdot, maybe I should have used a car analogy... /end offtopic

So what's Pidgin IM Program gonna get shortened to

[advocate_one]

PIMP???

Useless Trash Eating Shit Machine IM

[thedbp]

Pidgin IM? That's the worst thing I've ever seen a piece of software be called. Pidgin. Pronounced like "pigeon?" Pigeons shit on everything, eat anything, will explode if exposed to the right conditions*, are ugly, loud, awkward, and worst of all, ubiquitous in their space. Is that really what they want their software associated with? Why not just called it Useless Trash Eating Shit Machine IM?

*plop, plop, fizz fizz, oh what a surprise it is to find that birds have no built-in way of expelling that much gas all at once. boom.**

**that's a joke, obviously.

Re:Tell it to AOL

[Hal_Porter]

Lessons learned:

• Trademark your name right away.
• AOL sucks
• "IP" Law sucks, so the first lesson may also be a waste of time.

BUT I WOULDNT BE ABLE TO POST ON THE INTERWEB IF IT WAZNT FOR AOL!!!1

Re:Late April Fools? Please...

[Lazarian]

Even though I was snarky in my opinion in the choice of naming, the meaning of the word "pidgin" was not totally fucking lost on me. I still think it's a poor choice.

I apologize for insulting your haughty sense of elegance with my great unwashedness.

RFC 1149

[SocratesJedi]

Will it be compliant with RFC 1149 [faqs.org]?

Re:IP and tradmarks... again

[alphamugwump]

More like: "Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what's for lunch."

Better name

[Lobais]

I'd probably go for the name GINFA: Gaim Is Not Fucking AIM!

Re:OMG

[John Meacham]

indeed. this is why I use a FIPS-181 "random" password generator to generate names for my projects and their releases. Sometimes coding is the easy part, coming up with a name is hard. In any case, I would recommend one of the following as a consequence:

• yesoinanu
  
• gocaphy
  
• onjajimoocno
  
• wyediodnufba
  
• hugebneoko
  
• rutcacpodjo
  
• iahairnesita
  
• mishkosu
  
• sesikzay
  
• febquetmojna
  
  

AOL's next move

[AusIV]

1) AOL objects to a program called "GTK+ AOL Instant Messenger"
2) The program changed the name to Gaim.
3) AOL trademarks AIM
4) AOL starts complaining about the name Gaim.
5) Gaim changes name to Pidgin.
6) AOL trademarks Pidgeon...

Re:The new logo should be...

[StringBlade]

That would be very coo. I'm all a flutter for it!