The word libertine doesn’t have a very good ring in English either: ‘(1) a person, especially a man, who freely indulges in sensual pleasures without regard to moral principles; (2) a freethinker in matters of religion’ (Oxford Dictionary of English, 2nd ed.). — (1) is the primary meaning today, (2) is almost forgotten.
In German, Duden defines Libertin as ‘(1) (veraltet) Freigeist, (2) (gehoben, veraltet) ausschweifend, zügellos lebender Mensch’. I guess the name Linux Libertine was intended to convey ‘Freigeist’ rather than ‘zügellos lebender…’!
The impact of the name in German is perhaps in any case blunted by the fact that the word Libertin is largely obsolete. Libertine in English is far from obsolete, and it does have an impact: I have witnessed an amused/incredulous reaction — ‘Is it really called that?’ — from a friend who saw a publication in which I credited the Linux Libertine font by name. (He loved the font itself, though.)
Given that ‘libertin(e)’ is a negatively loaded word in both French and English, I think a new name could be worth considering. Could you collect a few suggestions and run a poll among users?
It would be worth keeping the Lib(e)r- root for the sake of continuity and to project the idea of freedom/independence from commercial fonts. LibreFont was my first thought, but it seems to be already taken by a Chinese project.
What about Linux LibreType? (Camelcase in a bow to LibreOffice ;) )
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What would be your solution? Do you have any naming ideas?
The word libertine doesn’t have a very good ring in English either: ‘(1) a person, especially a man, who freely indulges in sensual pleasures without regard to moral principles; (2) a freethinker in matters of religion’ (Oxford Dictionary of English, 2nd ed.). — (1) is the primary meaning today, (2) is almost forgotten.
In German, Duden defines Libertin as ‘(1) (veraltet) Freigeist, (2) (gehoben, veraltet) ausschweifend, zügellos lebender Mensch’. I guess the name Linux Libertine was intended to convey ‘Freigeist’ rather than ‘zügellos lebender…’!
The impact of the name in German is perhaps in any case blunted by the fact that the word Libertin is largely obsolete. Libertine in English is far from obsolete, and it does have an impact: I have witnessed an amused/incredulous reaction — ‘Is it really called that?’ — from a friend who saw a publication in which I credited the Linux Libertine font by name. (He loved the font itself, though.)
Given that ‘libertin(e)’ is a negatively loaded word in both French and English, I think a new name could be worth considering. Could you collect a few suggestions and run a poll among users?
It would be worth keeping the Lib(e)r- root for the sake of continuity and to project the idea of freedom/independence from commercial fonts. LibreFont was my first thought, but it seems to be already taken by a Chinese project.
What about Linux LibreType? (Camelcase in a bow to LibreOffice ;) )
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My proposal is "Svoboda". Sounds quite good and literaly meaning "liberty", "freedom" in Slavics - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svoboda
I shall amend my own suggestion to Linux Libertype. It differs minimally in form from Linux Libertine — just two letters — but avoids the association.