New name for KDE ... why not Qt?
Nobody who's been reading Planet KDE recently could have failed to notice proposals for a new name for KDE. Roberto Cappuccio started the ball rolling by suggesting that the new version of KDE be called "Kaleidos":
Personally, I hate acronyms. They lack the magical evocative power of common language words, especially those coming from ancient languages.
... The greek word "kaleidos" expresses exactly those concepts, coming from the greek words for beauty "kalos", and form "eidos". This word immediately evocates the beauty and magic of the caleidoscope with its magic mixture of ever changing colors and forms.
I have also read this definition: "The kaleidoscope signifies the fragments that come together to form a whole, perhaps indicating a diversity of something, such as experience, or piecing together the parts of a symbolic puzzle." It strongly reminds me KDE!!!
So, why don't we call it Kaleidos?
Tom Chance added to the debate by pointing out, as a commentor on his blog did, that KDE would still be used to refer to the "Kaleidos Desktop Environment". I posted this comment at his blog:
I like the name Kaleidos, but it reminds me of something else which really needs renaming: Qt.
The reason is that Qt is associated with so many other things, among them, QuickTime, Mondo QT, whatever that is, Quentin Tarantino, and Long QT syndrome - an inherited defect which causes heart attacks. A Google search for Qt will return many things beside the Qt toolkit.
Given that Trolltech used to be called Quasar Technologies, why don't they change the official name of Qt to Quasar toolkit? Qt could still be used colloquially and in filenames (as KDE would if it became Kaleidos DE).
The most recent contribution is from Michael Pyne, who says he doesn't want any new name for KDE or its project to start with a K.