[COLUG] Ethereal to Wireshark Name Change

[William Yang]

Jim wrote:
> Tom Hanlon wrote:
> 
>> I am out of touch when did "ethereal" become "netshark" ?
> 
> Never.
> 
> http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Awikipedia.org+ethereal+wireshark

I think a more responsive answer to the intent of Tom's question is:

   "Ethereal became Wireshark in or around May 2006."

"What's up with the name change?  Is Wireshark a fork?"
   http://www.wireshark.org/faq.html#q1.2

This goes to show some of the more subtle influence of intellectual 
property on the open source movement.  Even if the patents and copyright 
issues can be bypassed, there's *still* the trademark issue.  I don't know 
what open source luminaries are likely to say about that -- trade and 
service mark protections exists, at least nominally, to protect consumers 
from confusion in the marketplace because they denote the source (as in 
provider) of a good/service.

	-Bill
-- 
William Yang
wyang at gcfn.net