[LEDE-DEV] [OpenWrt-Devel] Remerge logo ideas

Fri Jun 2 12:07:19 PDT 2017

Carlos-

I don't think it matters what it's called to the OpenWrt/LEDE community 
- we have exhibited, shall we say, remarkable flexibility in the last 
few years, I think... ;-)

And, in fairness, I don't disagree with you - I think OpenWrt is a 
terrible name, one we would never choose if we were starting from 
scratch. Just to ensure that I annoy EVERYONE equally, I dislike LEDE as 
a name just as much. That is not to suggest I have something better in 
mind... I'm just chipping in from the cheap seats.

HOWEVER, OpenWRT is a name that has a fair bit of "equity" - it is known 
and recognized far beyond the OpenWrt community. I am confident that, if 
we did a name-recognition study among random geeky folks, a good 
percentage of them would recognize OpenWRT. Even though it harkens back 
to a long-since defunct Linksys router, and it does, therefore, carry 
that inaccurate "routers-only" baggage, that equity has some significant 
value in the "marketplace of ideas" and in the commercial market.

Having a known brand helps us in many ways, from getting resources to  
attracting people to the community. It takes a long time and a lot of 
energy to build a recognized brand - it is expensive - so it is foolish 
to discard it without careful thought.

It comes down to a simple calculation - the value of the brand as it 
exists, minus some amount for the fact that it is now somewhat 
inaccurate. My own analysis is that the net is still VERY positive, so 
renaming/rebranding is a bad idea. And a new logo will reinforce that value.

So it's a bit like Churchill's famous quotation about democracy - I 
think OpenWrt is the worst possible name, except for any of the others. 
Hence, OpenWrt is the right name.

-Bill

On 6/2/2017 3:35 AM, Carlos Ferreira wrote:
> @Mirko and  @Bill
>
> I had the same thoughts in the past. OpenWRt has evolved into a much
> more diverse and generic embedded development environment.
> It no longer serves only the Wireless community interests or used just
> in Wireless Routers. It goes much beyond that.
>
> Also, in my opinion, LEDE would be better and honestly, those who use
> OpenWRT already know what LEDE is. There's no branding issue here and
> LEDE, for me, is a much proper project name, which refers the current
> real use of OpenWRT.
>
> Also, I always believed it should be OpenWRt with capital WR. Why?
> Isn't suposed to be Open Wireless Router? :)
>
> Carlos.
>
> On 30 May 2017 at 20:34, Bill Moffitt <bmoffitt at ayrstone.com> wrote:
>> On 5/30/2017 12:15 PM, Mirko Vogt wrote:
>>> Huhu,
>>>
>>> looks great to me and it's definitely the right timing for a logo change
>>> :)
>>> Me who came to OpenWrt for porting it to a mobile phone and continued
>>> with pictures frames, mini-notebooks and landline phones, I never
>>> considered OpenWrt as a plain wifi router distribution/toolchain but one
>>> for every kind of embedded devices.
>>> Although I know it's coming from there and the name still reflects it,
>>> I'd appreciate more "embedded" than "wifi/antenna" in a logo, though
>>> having no idea how to do that :)
>>> Please don't consider that as complaint or even objection towards your
>>> drafts.
>>> It's just some input which might or might not be taken into account in
>>> the end.
>>>
>>> Thanks for your work!
>>>
>>>     mirko
>> Mirko-
>>
>> I just wanted to say that I had the same reaction (because I think LEDE is a
>> good idea), and then I thought about it a while.
>>
>> The truth is that just about all the embedded devices coming up are going to
>> have some sort of a wireless component, and in many cases the "wirelessness"
>> of the device or application is just as important as the "embeddedness." The
>> current popularity of the ESP8266 is proof of this (although it doesn't
>> currently run OpenWRT) - there are lots of educational devices out there to
>> connect sensors and measure things, but, when they have a wireless
>> connection on them, suddenly they are a LOT more interesting for practical
>> applications.
>>
>> I decided that I actually liked having the symbolic reference to
>> radio/wireless/etc/ in the logo. I choose to view it not as a WiFi router,
>> but just something that's wireless.
>>
>> Just my own 2 cents worth,
>>
>> Bill
>>
>>
>>> On 05/29/2017 12:11 PM, Jamie Stuart wrote:
>>>> Hi,
>>>> First of all, I’m glad to hear the process of remerging LEDE with OpenWrt
>>>> is moving forward.
>>>> For what it’s worth, if prefer the LEDE name (it’s friendlier - ‘leddy’ -
>>>> and not tied to the name of an old router!)
>>>>
>>>> However, it seems the consensus is that the OpenWrt name should remain. I
>>>> thought that maybe we should take this opportunity to at least give the
>>>> project an updated look?
>>>> Maybe a new logo? I’m personally not one for mascots, so I had a quick go
>>>> at a few simple text-based designs:
>>>>
>>>> http://i.imgur.com/9zyXSYR.png
>>>>
>>>> What are you thoughts?
>>>>
>>>> Jamie, onebillion
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>>
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