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Cygnus Name Change 82

Posted by CmdrTaco from the ever-wanna-name-a-company? dept.
An Anonymous reader writes "Cygnus Solutions is changing its name. They're doing that in a Open Source/Free Software way by asking for net contributions. The selected contribution wins a fully loaded PII Linux workstation. Check it out. " Name the Company. Thats a new contest.
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Cygnus Name Change More

Cygnus Name Change

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  • How about TransMeta?
  • Gnuru-co?

    (And would this be pronounced /gn'uruco/, /gnur'uco/, or /gnuruc'o/?)

    ---

  • Back in 1988 when Burroughs and Sperry merged, one of the new company's first acts was to ask its entire employee base for suggestions for a new name. The idea was that it was cheaper to do that than to hire a namesmith, and would help get the employees to buy into the new organization.

    The new name was announced by the board in a worldwide broadcast to employees. They announced the word with great fanfare. Everyone was on the edge of their seats. "And the new company name is....... UNISYS."

    And every single employee said at the same time, "Unisys????" with a mixture of extreme sarcasm and puzzlement.

    It was a sign of things to come. Five years later, they had about a third of those employees left, after massive layoffs and several restructurings.

  • Kansas she said is the name of the star
  • I must say that page is singularly unenlightening about what their "new" direction is and how it differs from the old. Thus how could anyone pick a name to match it? The only thing I can get out of this annoucement is that they don't want to be associated with "GNU" anymore.
  • Posted by FascDot Killed My Previous Use:

    What's wrong with the current name?
  • I always thought it was pretty clever.

  • Rent-a-gnuru?
  • Perhaps Guido the Aardmoose?
  • As far as I can tell, and I've looked pretty hard, the name "Cygnus" has nothing to with GNU, the FSF, or free software at all--it happens to share the same three letters, I think by chance. Cygnus just _happens_ to license some of its software under GNU GPL or other free software licenses. It's a practice they find keeps them competitive and strong, so they play with it.

    The name Cygnus is taken from the constellation Cygnus, the swan, and it's a nice name. In fact, the constellation graphic is right there on the front page. Their web site could use a makeover, as I don't find it very pretty, but it's functional enough. The name is established and unique, at least in my frame of reference, but a fresh clean makeover could really make the marketability difference.
  • How about Wing Is Not Gnu
  • I have read Michael Tiemann's chapter from "Open Sources".

    While I am not 100% sure about my interpretation (I would have to reread it more carefully, and I will), it looked to me mostly that Cygnus simply uses Open Source as a business modell that allows them (them being the first mover in multiplatform compiler technology with many many embedded system targets) to stay ahead of the competition.

    Under this conditions it is neccessary for them to take control of the compiler development.

    Question: Is this an evil thing in itself?

    My answer: I cannot tell right now.
    So far Cygnus has behaved well, taking from and giving to the net. If everyone is happy it is likely that they keep their leading position.

    Crucial might be their relationship to the FSF, as happy as I'm about to see the progress on egcs, a starvation of gcc development would make me worry.

    I would really like to know the FSF's point of view on the gcc/egcs issue.

  • A lesser but real problem is that it is not obvious how to spell it given the pronounciation (it does sounds like "sickness") or vice versa.

    Better not call it CygCo :-)

  • that's weird. there was one comment when i clicked on "read more" and it said there were over 100 comments, so i had to click on the only one comment there to read it. weird.
    as for the namechange, kudos to them. it's about time...
  • SICKNESS... Something that just doesn't sound too appealing.
  • I'm somewhat surprised that nobody mentioned it yet; heck, maybe it's even an urban legend sort of thing, but I always used to think that CYGNUS stood for
    CYGNUS, Your GNU Support
    which I happen to find one of the coolest names in the business, what with the Recursive Acronym tradition and all that.

    But then, I'm a geek...

  • I thought Cygnus was one of the coolest-named free software companies.

    <sound of furious grepping comes from behind the screen>

    How about interregnum?

  • What's wrong with the current name?

    Simple. They want to go public, but the name "Cygnus" is already taken by a pharmaceutical company.

    http://biz.yahoo.com/n/c/cygn.html [yahoo.com]

    Cheers,

    - Jim

  • Summer Triangle?

    ;-)
  • I wanted to hail to the original "Cygnus" so I scratched my brain for a spell-out for "Swan". I got the spell-out from Cygnus' name for open source / free software ... sourceware [cygnus.com]. So my submission is "SourceWare ANswers". And to help matters, there does not appear to be a swan.com.
    Christopher A. Bohn

  • Nuts (Score:1)

    by EngrBohn ( 5364 )
    Well, I based my statement on not being able to locate their server.
    Christopher A. Bohn
  • that sounds good as a name of a product...who knows-it could work
  • I'm surprised nobody has suggested the obvious name comming from a web contest: Hank the angry, drunken company ;-)

  • Gnews (Score:1)

    by tilly ( 7530 )
    Silly, but the first thing that popped into my mind...

    What else can you think of with a stronger positive impression, and a connection with GNU (which is what their old name had going for it)?

    Ben
  • Well, does anyone know if Apollo is available, seeing as how the old Apollo got swallowed up by HP? How 'bout Dionysus? (OK, OK, just kidding...)

  • Ever seen that episode of Friends?

    Joey announcing himself as

    Holden McGroin...

    Sure it's more of a personal name, but aren't there plenty of companies named after someone? ;)

    - alex
  • I've always wondered about MS's name... I know it shows up in Gibson's Neuromancer:

    : The counters that fronted the booths displayed
    :hundreds of slivers of microsoft, angular
    :fragments of colored silicon mounted
    :under oblong transparent bubbles on squares of
    :white cardboard. Molly went to the seventh booth
    :along the south wall.

    Anyone else able to shed some light on this, or know other plausible origins for the term "microsoft"? Wouldn't it be funny if Gibson decided to sue MS for use of the name? heh.

    Incidentally, for all you copyright fiends, you're generally allowed to quote sections of a publication...

  • ..that's basic small print from your typical contest entry. It's just there to tell the prizewinner that their name, etc., can be used in promotion. Not uncommon at all....
  • ...by a drug company. So if they want to go public...
    Search web for "cygnus"

  • Cygnus, Inc [cygn.com]

  • I guess they don't want to be so closely associated with the Open Source community that it alienates other companies. I can see the reasoning.

  • Of course, he couldn't possibly be expected to go through computer books and actually read them so he had a clue. After all, he's an artist, and way above all that technical stuff.

    Heck, we're such lowly peons in terms of understanding art that the book "Difference Engine" will only be understood by us in 10-20 years or so.

    I've read most of Gibson's books, but that doesn't mean I have to like him. :-)

  • I hope the new name doesn't have it. BLECH! I suggested "Automagically Inc." because I couldn't think of anything else. I'm sure everyone will hate it. :)
  • New proprietary compiler? Where'd you hear rumors like that?

  • How about GoNadUs? It still has GNU in it
  • Well, small confession here, but I never did notice GNU was in there :-] Gotta give 'em big points for subtlety... too bad they can't stick with such a clever name.

    P.S.: I was going to suggest OpenWorks, something with some built-in allegory <g> But alas, it's taken. (You know, I worry sometimes, when it takes a good fifteen minutes to think up of something that isn't already in the InterNIC...)
  • I'm pretty stupid with egrep, but here's my version:
    strings /usr/lib/ispell/american.hash | perl -e 'foreach(){if(/\w*G\w*N\w*U\w*/){print;}}'|sort|un iq|tr "\n" " "

    ALGONQUIAN ALGONQUIN ANDROGYNOUS ARGONAUT CONSANGUINEOUS CORRIGENDUM CYGNUS DISINGENUOUS DOUGHNUT EIGENFUNCTION EIGENVALUE ENDOGENOUS EXOGENOUS GAINFUL GARGANTUAN GATLINBURG GELATINOUS GENEROUS GENEROUSLY GENIUS GENUINE GENUS GEOSYNCHRONOUS GERANIUM GERMANIUM GINSBURG GLANDULAR GLUTINOUS GRANDDAUGHTER GRANDEUR GRANDILOQUENT GRANULAR GRANULARITY GRANULATE GRANULE GRANULOCYTIC GREENHOUSE GROWNUP GYMNASIUM HETEROGENEOUS HETEROGENOUS HOMOGENEOUS IGNEOUS IGNOMINIOUS IGNORAMUS INDIGENOUS INGENIOUS INGENUITY INGENUOUS INHOMOGENEOUS INTERREGNUM LEGUMINOUS LIGNUM MAGNANIMOUS MAGNESIUM MAGNITUDE MAGNUM MAGNUSON NITROGENOUS OVERGENEROUS POLYGYNOUS SANGUINEOUS SIGNATURE
  • Microcomputer software.
  • In fact there is even another company called Cygnus Solutions in Atlanta Georgia.

    This is the same Cygnus Solutions as the one in California--we're just the Atlanta office. If you look closely, you'll find Cygnus Solutions in Toronto, Canada, and Cambridge, U.K., which are also part of Calfornia's Cygnus Solutions.
  • Wrong, Cygnus ("the swan") is the name of a constallation. Its brightest star is Deneb.
  • This has nothing to do with the FSF or egcs. (If it is, they are keeping something from us!) The main problem with "Cygnus" is that there are just too many damn companies named "Cygnus something". A lesser but real problem is that it is not obvious how to spell it given the pronounciation (it does sounds like "sickness") or vice versa. Our CEO was complaining about having to spell "Cygnus" everytime he calls up someone.
  • Cygnus is the name of a star.

    Zagmar
  • Linux Uses GNU Tools
  • Confuse-O-Cat?

  • OK... Call me paranoid, but this Cygnus name change has me worried.

    There is no official reasons given on thier web site as to why they want to change thier name... just a vague impression that they want to distance themselves from the FSF's GNU project.

    IMHO, companies dont change thier name after 10 years -- after gaining prominent name recognition in the community -- without some VERY pressing reasons.

    So it seems to me that Cygnus not only wants to distance itself from GNU but is willing to take DRASTIC measures to do so.


    The most obvious reason to worry is egcs.

    egcs (experimental GNU compiler system ??) has been positioned as the successor to gcc, and in fact is increasingly being relied on by distros like RedHat, Debian and others.

    gcc -- the GNU C compiler -- along with glibc (which is also moving towards Cygnus control) are the cornerstones of the GNU project. These products are important to the future of free software.

    Cygnus cannot deny that they have been seen in the past as a GNU friendly company... I think that much of the quick acceptance that egcs has enjoyed is due to this perception. egcs has been seen as a "friendly continuation" of gcc rather than a "bad faith fork" of gcc.


    So to the folks at Cygnus I say:

    Come on guys, this is a community you are dealing with here... sure it's not nice (or even professional) to air grievances in public... but in this case niceties should not stop you from making your case to the community.

    If Cygnus has a problem with FSF, they need to inform the community about the problem... and give us some idea about where The-Company-Formerly-Known-As-Cygnus is headed.


    If you answer only one question, try this one:

    Q: Why should the community trust egcs to be the new cornerstone of free software?

    J. Weesner

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