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- It's got amazing traction in the press. Brand recognition is an IMMENSELY important advantage in this market. If you can get 100,000 people to whisper your name that's a big deal. When people remember it, that's even bigger. I spent years in the media industry and I can tell you what's happened in the first two weeks of Geronimo is very special. Throwing that traction away would be stupid.
- This project and this server will be a place of public accomodation accommodation used by people from all around the world. Everyone from members of powerful corporations and governments to tiny villages in Honduras will be able to use it to build web applications for FREE. Naming it in honor of Geronimo is the equivalent of naming an international airport after John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan or Cesar Vallejo. It is a mark of our highest respect.
- I don't associate his name with jumping out of an airplane or suicide. Anyone who does might consider spending less time in front of the television and take up gardening, yoga or base jumping.
- Pointy-haired bosses who don't see the business sense in Open Source are most likely not the future business leaders of the software industry, and we're not sycophantic toadies who live to serve them. If they're concerned about the name of their software because of it rings of a bad war movie or because it might impact on the appearance of their business, we probably can't help them anyway. If they're looking for the Vole, they know where to find it.
- The name is reported to have been democratically chosen by a majority of the initial project members after 2 weeks of discussion.
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Although it is easy to say "[the name] should be viewed as a tribute and should be taken positively," you cannot ignore the fact that it may not be. Even if that is our intent, it needs to be made more clear that that is our intent. I remember reading an article years ago on Bonobo (the component technology behind GNOME). Within the resources section, there was a point about the fact that the bonobo was also a monkey, and an endangered species at that, followed by a link for more information. Now, I may have missed something, but I've seen nothing of the sort in all my readings about Apache Geronimo. If the name Geronimo is chosen, I would encourage this project to follow suit. If you want to honor Geronimo, then explicitly state that on the main project web site. Include links for the interested reader to learn more about who Geronimo was. Make an honest attempt to ensure that anyone using your software is also made more aware of Geronimo as a real person, rather than just a marketing term. If steps along these lines are taken, and there are localization modules for Native American languages, and the Native American community shows it support for the usage of Geronimo as a project name, then I would see no problem with it. I believe the Apache project using Geronimo for a name would be better likened to Soviet Russia circa 1980 to use JFK as an airport name, rather than the US deciding to name an airport after JFK. We need to respect (and asking permission is a great way to show respect) the culture from which we are pulling the name Geronimo, rather than just assuming they will feel honored. We have no inherent right to use the name, unless that right is granted to us.
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- Some interesting reading about Geronimo.
- Geronimo's biography.
- A Chiricahua Apache's Account of Geronimo's 1886 Campaign
- Did George Bush's Grandfather really steal Geronimo's skull? while at Yale?
- The etymology of the exclamation "geronimo!" as it relates to charging into battle and leaping off a cliff. [GeronimoEtymology] Geronimo Etymology