[Debian] Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

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 :)

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

Maebian....

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

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.

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

LiNIT
Linux for NIT's

:D

(I am terrible at naming things lol)

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

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.

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

Tabian.

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

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

Naibed. The N is obviously for Nokia and ...

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

Well, the most descriptive and non-trademark-infringing thing that comes to mind is "armel", since that is the ArmEabiPort'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:

1. we're we're not a business and we're not selling anything
2. we are using almost entirely unmodified Debian packages, downloaded from Debian repositories
3. 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)
4. 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.

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

I like Tabian, seems quite explicative

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

I like Tabian and Maebian.

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

Debia

Deb + ia (from Nokia)

Nokian

Nok + ian (from Debian)

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

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

• Tabian is nice, but it is way too much similar to Taliban
• Debbie sounds nice too, but it would be hard to find in search engines

My humble idea:

Nittux Linux
Nitlux

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

I like Maebian.

-T.

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

DebIT (case sensitive (because IT is Linux) Debian Internet Tablet) :D

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

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.

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

I'd call it Debin :D.

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

"Morpheus" sounds cool to me:D

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

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?

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

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...

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

Dan Aykroyd and I vote for Slagathor. Slaggy for short. Cryoborg is another one of my favorites.

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

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"

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

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

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

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.

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

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)

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

I suggest "Handy", cause it would by handy in your hand!

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

Too dangerous. One typo and you are marked terrorist and your tablet gets confiscated on US border :-)

BTW, nice bikeshed color thread, good to see laws working ;-) No offense meant, I know this IS important, that's why I joined :-)

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

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.

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

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?)

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

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.

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

Another vote for Deblet here. And I say the bikeshed should be green.

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

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 :)

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

And you put a image of a n800 with a screenshot photoshoped in above the title?....... Hmmmmm.... :p

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

Oi, no photoshop, It'd be a lot prettier then :P It's done with MS Paint ;)

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

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

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

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.

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

Done. ;)

-T.

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

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...

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

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.

Attachment 2272

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

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.

Re: Naming discussion for the project soon previously known as NIT-Debian
 

The Debian license allows for using the swirl and the logo in affiliated projects (Debian invokes an "Open Use Logo License" 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.