From a name you don’t want to say to a name you can’t say
I think you just pronounce it Wilbur
I think they should keep both names and just have WLBR be the “enterprise” version.
However, in non-English speaking countries, nobody has an issue with GIMP. And even my very religious and Murican MIL uses Gimp. She doesn’t even know.
If anything, those discussions further the association, as they come up when you google “gimp program sexual” or sth like that.
It’s short for GNU image manipulation program. I mean, you could short it to imp, or rename it to Picture & Image Manipulation Program (PIMP).
I propose Scriptable Image Manipulation Program (SIMP)
SIMPly genius!
Scriptable High Resolution Image Manipulation Program
Pimp it is then!
I’m partial to SIMP
Gimp is really just a rare/archaic ableist slur anyway - like to refer to someone with a limp or otherwise a leg/lack of a leg that impedes their gait. I’ve never heard it used in my life.
The sexual usage is from gay bdsm subculture in the 70s that the large majority of ppl who are aware of it are only aware because of Pulp Fiction.
My vote is for pimp
Gimp is really just a rare/archaic ableist slur anyway - like to refer to someone with a limp or otherwise a leg/lack of a leg that impedes their gait. I’ve never heard it used in my life.
I’ve only heard it used that way once in my life. When I was in high school (about 20 years ago), I hurt my leg while playing basketball and was on crutches for a few weeks. This one kid in one of my classes constantly referred to me as “gimp” throughout my recovery.
Ive heard people say something “was gimped” to mean it was bad, weak, reduced, crippled, etc, so I think it is still common enough near me
He saw Pulp Fiction and thought he was clever
The sexual usage is from gay bdsm subculture in the 70s that the large majority of ppl who are aware of it are only aware because of Pulp Fiction.
I had heard gimp/gimpy used to mean “limping or is otherwise gait-impaired” often enough that I assumed the Pulp Fiction character was called the Gimp because of his posture and gait. I was completely unaware of any scene/subculture meaning until reading threads like these.
Full disclosure about my own experience: I am a disabled person who has no strong emotional reaction to the term. I do limp, some days worse than others.
I wonder if it’s a regional thing? I’ve only ever heard it in movies or older TV shows. Where I live people are much more likely to just say “crippled” or describe someone as walking with a limp.
I was confused when I saw Pulp Fiction as a kid because I was like “why is this handicapped guy in a leather suit and what does him being hadicapped have to do with his apparent hobbies” lol. But like I said, never really heard it used in other contexts.
It meant that stretchy plastic craft string when I was a kid.
Yeah, which I hear is also called lanyard string, or even boondoggle.
It must be something that can’t possibly be construed as sexual innuendo, like Linux Image Manipulation Program (LIMP)…
You have to set the WLBR_IS_GIMP env variable to get the new name. So I guess that might be what they going for, at least for now?
I get what you are saying but IMO the old name was hurting adoption. Imagine the headlines if say some city or government announced they are moving to GIMP from photoshop or affinity.
I imagine them being something along the lines of ‘Government organisation X moves from Photoshop to free open source alternative’ or if a journalist is feeling funny ‘Government organisation X moves from paid image manipulation software (PIMP) to GIMP’.
Anyways, I think it’s only a minor issue limited to English speaking countries, and only a issue for people who already have issues
The terrible UI is hurting adoption.
Adoption in English speaking countries only. Why is adoption equally terrible internationally if the name is to blame?
Seriously, the ONLY reason I actually know gimp has other meanings is because of discussions of the program.
the issue isn’t the kink association. The issue is that the word used to be used as a slur for disabled folks.
I think they should keep both names and just have WLBR be the “enterprise” version.
there’s an enterprise version?
I will be locking this issue to avoid non-core developers spamming with the same walls of texts about the project name.
Bruno is a very wise man.
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A man can be wise and still propose a name that some people don’t like. The reason why this man is wise is, he knows what would happen and is wise enough to limit / lock the thread before it happens.
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Your opinion is one of many. For some the name does not matter, for others GIMP is worse than WLBR. I don’t care what the name is. To me the person Bruno was wise to lock it, because he knew non contributor would spam with their opinion and with history. That is the mark of a wise man. This is my point, not how many people like or dislike the new name. That’s not the point I am making.
At least GIMP could be pronounced nced WTF is WLBR.
Wilbur, IIRC is the name of the mascot.
Yeah I agree. WLBR is the most horrible name ever. Also it reminds me of the WNBR, which is the World Naked Bike Ride… not safe for work either.
GIMP is GIMP. It’s been GIMP for decades, and that name carries history, recognition, and a community that built something genuine. Rebranding it to WLBR feels like throwing all of that away for the sake of optics that most longtime users like myself frankly don’t care about. It’s not progress in any way, it’s unnecessary self-erasure. GIMP works, GIMP is known as such, and GIMP should stay exactly what it is…
Also, WLBR sucks ass as a name. Just call it Glimpse at this point.
LibreOffice managed to dethrone OpenOffice, but many people still call it OpenOffice even after all these years.
The fact that longtime users like yourself can’t see the value in anyone else’s opinion here is pretty on point in my experience with this community.
How is arguing for one side of the issue “not seeing the value of anyone else’s opinion”.
Because to you it’s virtually meaningless other than some weird nostalgia. For schools it’s the difference between a teacher being able to promote the software to 30 kids at a time or not. You may think that’s stupid, so does the teacher, it doesn’t matter.
Can you not put words into my mouth?
How else do you expect anyone to take this? 🙄
Rebranding it to WLBR feels like throwing all of that away for the sake of optics that most longtime users like myself frankly don’t care about.
You wrote
Because to you it’s virtually meaningless other than some weird nostalgia
responding to my comment. I didn’t take any side, let alone argued from with nostalgia; where does the “you” come from?
Since it’s called the GNU Image Manipulation Program, why not pick up the extremely low hanging fruit and call it GNU Imp? It also comes with a free mascot.
Edit: And given that Wilber already has a cheeky smile and two horn-like ears, it wouldn’t even be that much of a new mascot either. I mean come on people, do I have to think of everything around here?
It’s easier to search online for WLBR than for Imp. It might occasionally force people to search for the full name “GNU Imp”, which might be a plus.
Other than that, I love your proposal.
I propose: WHARGRBL
The sound of a dog drinking from a sprinkler?
Bingo!
And here I was worried they would pick another terrible name.
Why not just Wilber? Just like the mascot.
The Linux community can’t let an opportunity for an acronym to go to waste. Even more so for a backronym.
Could have had the recursive acronym KINGIMP (KINGIMP Is Not GIMP) smdh
It’s another case of OSPNS - Open source projects names sucking .
Perhaps ‘WiLBeR’ would be a compromise?
Its … basically following what I’m going to call ‘GLaDOS case’ rules.
???
Just sort of seems closer to the kind of silly spellings of robot names in a fair deal of movies and such?
GNU Wilber
To be honest, this seems like a stupid fix to a non-issue.
There’s already Latex, and the purists calling it Lateh only make it seem like they know and are ashamed.
Or Uranus being pronounced not as your-anus but urine-us. The “alternate/kid-friendly” option is just plain worse. It also teaches kids certain words are bad, which is a bad idea for a multitude of resons I won’t get into.
I say keep GIMP GIMP, loud and clear. No need to be ashamed, because it isn’t shameful.
Attempting to avoid this absolute non-issue by ingenious pronounciation or rebranding just exacerbates the issue.
It’s called “GIMP” and not “Fuck Me then Go Out The Door”. Wether or not GIMP was a moment of “funny humor” or not is beside the point. The “official” explanation is perfectly belieavable, and therefore suitable enough. Just run with it.
If an idiot asks “Why’s it called like [insert-here]”, just say it’s a fucking coincidence and you don’t care. Call them dirty-minded for bonus points.
There’s already Latex
wait what? Latex is used in tons of non-sexytime things, surely nobody’s raising an eyebrow at that?
amer*cans
Well, people still do. Yet it hasn’t been rebranded. And GIMP should follow.
The “TeX” part is intended to be Greek though, and TeX predates LaTeX.
Yes. Gimp is the photo editor.
I’d heard some sickos in some place use the word Gimp for something bad. Some sick minority are the last people to listen to about the name of software that’s used world wide by people who don’t know about those sickos.
Which is what the name has not been changed. Put your own house in order.
I pronounce Uranus as Οὐρανός
Soo… our-anus?
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Yeah, it seems like a totally unnecessary move.
I thought Uranus was said more like yur than your, no o sound.
Or Uranus being pronounced not as your-anus but urine-us. The “alternate/kid-friendly” option is just plain worse. It also teaches kids certain words are bad, which is a bad idea for a multitude of resons I won’t get into.
Look, there’s nothing wrong with the word “anus” but if you’re actually in the field of astronomy that particular pun starts to get old after about the 10 millionth time. Some people just want to be able to talk about the seventh planet without the room erupting in giggles every time they say its name.
Spare a thought for the poor astronomy student doing thesis work on the volatile gases of Uranus. They know, they get it, they just want to be able to have one serious conversation about it.
Another example is Coq, the interactive theorem prover, named after CoC, an abbreviation for calculus constructions, the type theory on which Coq is based, and the co-creator Thierry Coquand in whose native language (French) coq has no sexual connotation and is simply the word for rooster (male chicken).
I have just now seen on Wikipedia to gather this information that it was renamed to Rocq last year after 41 years.
is simply the word for rooster (male chicken).
As is in English?
Sooo, basically they’re changing the name that’s somewhat bad in English to the name that’s terrible in all languages? Huh.
from bad to worse
from guatemala to guatepeor
If we stop using words because someone, at some point in time, misused them and attached negative connotations to them, then by 2100 the english language will be censored in its entirety.
We have been doing that for centuries.
Language just like culture is subject to constant change. It wouldn’t be censored in its entirety but changed. Because there are words that are bring used instead.
We can discuss if it’s necessary to change some words and I agree that some shouldn’t be changed. But some needed and need to be changed like the n word. The line of demarcation isn’t clear on these issues and depend on a conversation about societal norms.
I really like the name GIMP.
There’s nothing wrong with calling it GIMP. People need to take their issues elsewhere. A mental health professional perhaps.
Yes there is something wrong with calling it GIMP. The correct name has always been the GIMP.
Is WLBR supposed to be an abbreviation for something? I realize it is a reference to the mascot Wilber, but apart from that?
WNBR stands for World Naked Bike Ride, so it must be something similar!
If we’re going to wildly speculate, hey, isn’t this what we have AI for nowadays?
I asked ChatGPT: “give me ideas what the abbreviation WLBR might stand for if that is the name of a piece of image editing software”. Here’s the result:
🧠 Professional / technical-sounding
- Wide Layer Blending & Rendering
- Workflow Layer-Based Retoucher
- Weighted Light Balance Renderer
- Wavelet-Based Light & Blur Reconstruction
- White-Level Balance & Retouch
🎨 Creative / artistic branding
- We Love Better Retouching
- Wild Light & Bold Retouch
- Wavelength Brush
- Wonder Lens: Blur & Refine
- Whitelight Brush
⚡ Modern / software-product style
- WizLayer Build & Render
- WarpLab: Blend & Refine
- Web-Level Bitmap Renderer
- Workflow Lens & Brush Renderer
- WLB Renderer (treat WLBR as a stylized acronym)
🧩 Slightly abstract (like many real apps)
- Wavelength-Based Rasterizer
- Layered Bitmask Refinement
- Light Balance Reconstruction Engine
- Wideband Luminosity Brush & Retouch
🧠 If you want it to feel like real software naming
Most image tools (like Photoshop, GIMP, etc.) don’t strictly spell out acronyms anymore—they use:
- suggestive tech words (Layer, Light, Render, Brush)
- or abstract brand terms
So something like:
WLBR = “WaveLight Brush & Render”
feels believable without being overly literal.
(end of ChatGPT response)
Out of these, I think “Workflow Layer-Based Retoucher” works best. But interesting that ChatGPT thinks “GIMP” doesn’t “strictly spell out” an acronym anymore, or that “Photoshop” ever did?!
