I think Gimp (or 'The GIMP') is perfectly fine for something people see and use. Do you really think it's worse than PhotoPaint, Paint.NET or any of the other names out there?
OTOH, having "Avahi" and "Plymouth" as names for semi-obscure system components that users don't get a word in choosing, but occasionally have to diagnose, is a terribly bad idea.
> Do you really think it's worse than PhotoPaint, Paint.NET or any of the other names out there?
Yes, I think it's a worse name because of the minority of people who know nothing about it, but who get offended anyhow. We can argue all day about why they shouldn't, but they do. Not to mention the fact that nothing about the name tells you what it actually does, something the rest of your examples manage.
I do agree with some of what you said. There are still people who have never heard of Gimp. Tell then that it's an alternative to Photoshop and they say "What's Gimp?" or "What's Photoshop?" followed by a lengthy explanation, tagged with questions like "What's GNU?" "Isn't Microsoft Essentials free?" and so on. It ends up with "Well... I don't know... hmm..." long silence "Oh, well it's free so it must be worse." and "Adobe made Flash, so Photoshop must be better."
IMHO, the name does imply that it has some sort of flaw in it (like a real gimp) even though it does not. I like "GNU Image Manipulation Program" better in that respect, but it's of course much longer. GIMP is much shorter, and when you hear the full name, not just the acronym, it makes more sense.
And in no way am I saying it's a bad program. Quite the opposite, actually. :)
> that it has some sort of flaw in it (like a real gimp)
I don't think that most non-native speakers have come across the sense of a 'gimp' as a cripple. I for one always thought that a gimp was some kind of rodent (probably prompted by the GIMP's mascot). The most common uses of the word "gimp" in Internet-visible English seem to be (i) in reference to The GIMP and (ii) to the "gimp thread", which seems to have something to do with sewing machines.
> "Adobe made Flash, so Photoshop must be better."
Well, they made enough money from Photoshop to be able to buy Macromedia. Close enough :-)
