Talk:Brøderbund

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[edit] Not enough info

There isn't enough information here, and I don't know enough about Broderbund to add anything. --Anonymous

Indeed. What would definitely need mentioning is: Where were they located? Were they an USAnian company? Or were they Swedish? This isn't made particularily clear and should be explained in the introduction. --Ashmodai 00:05, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Is it, or isn't it, alive?

I just wonder if Brøderbund as a company isn't rather to be considered defunct -- as the only remnant of it nowadays is the brand name. If I'm right, we should put this article into Category:Defunct computer and video game companies. --Wernher 23:25, 27 Nov 2004 (UTC)

It's more alive than say, Westwood Studios, though I wouldn't peg it anywhere near where Maxis is right now. Though it doesn't exactly resemble the original, it can't really be characterized as defunct as long there is still currently published software under the Broderbund name. --Alexwcovington 09:43, 28 Nov 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Danish for band of brothers

According to a Danish friend of mine, the Danish word for "band of brothers" would be broderskab. He recognizes neither "Brøderbund" nor "Broderbund" as Danish terms.

As a Dane, I have never.. EVER.. run across that word in the danish dictionary.. I'm sitting here with a dictionary and there is no word 'brøder' in the danish vocabulary. The closest matches in regards to brother is 'brødre', the plural of 'broder'. These words translate respectively to 'brothers' and 'brother'.

Closer yet is the word bread or 'brød'. But that word makes no sense with the addition of the 'er'-ending.

Also, the last part of the brand: 'bund' has nothing to do with a band of anything. It is, however, 'bottom' of something.

I cannot in any way see the brand name Brøderbund as having any relationship with Danish words. My guess would be that it has some origins in the German language. But German doesn't use the letter 'ø'. But I am only so good at the German language, so this is an uneducated guess.

http://www.atarimagazines.com/creative/v10n9/157_A_family_affair_behind_t.php says:
"He thought of joining his younger brother, Gary, who lived 3000 miles away in Eugene, OR. Gary, too, attended Harvard where he had decided to major in Celtic--for no particular reason. The program was full, but the department head for Scandinavian Studies happened to be on the same floor as the head of the Celtic program. Being of Swedish ancestry, Gary decided to major in the language and literature of his ancestors. Although he didn't know it at the time, one of Gary's intramural activities would help him make a living after graduation; he played for the Radcliffe basketball team.
Gary always had a lust for travel. Soon after graduation, he went to Sweden. Looking for pick-up games, he eventually ran into other basketball players. One thing led to another and before long Gary found himself doing something most redblooded American boys would give their eyeteeth to do. He got a job coaching an all-girl Swedish basketball team."
"On their first day of business, February 25, 1980, Doug went out to register the name of the company. The brothers decided on the name Broderbund, which loosely translated means brotherhood in German, Danish, and Swedish--after all, they were blood brothers. They decided to keep the Danish slashed 0 since it resembled the programmer's "0'."
Nandesuka 10:58, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)
Well, the magazine is obviousely wrong. We have a Dane who says it doesn't translate into Danish. We could change it to German and Swedish, until/unless we get confirmation that it isn't from either of those languages either. — Frecklefoot | Talk 14:33, Jun 17, 2005 (UTC)
The magazine says "which loosely translated means brotherhood in German, Danish, and Swedish". I'm Norwegian and I've always believed that Brøderbund was supposed to mean something like "brotherhood" even though it isn't a real word. The Swedish word "bröder" means brothers. Substitute the umlaut o with a Danish/Norwegian "ø" (which is the same sound) and you get "brøder". Bund is German for federation, thus federation, or band, of brothers. 84.48.108.12 10:47, 15 April 2006 (UTC)
I can help resolve this. The Carlstons deliberately chose the name so that it would NOT translate directly into any one language (in part to avoid trademark risks -- Doug was a lawyer), but they wanted people from many languages to get the spirit of its intent. In English the "brother-bond" meaning came through to people, and the German and Scandinavian language speakers obviously got it immediately. Coll7 19:31, 15 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] leetspeak

Article says:

The Brøderbund name, therefore, may be the first widely known example of leetspeak.

The article H. J. Heinz Company says there was an slogan called Beanz Meanz Heinz in the 1960s. In my eyes, this is leet, too - even leeter than Brøderbund. And it was before Broderbund took off. --Abdull 21:28, 13 July 2005 (UTC)

Exchanging a 's' for a 'z' is not restricted to leetspeak -- also, it is not a requirement of leetspeak. I'd strongly doubt that the inventors of the slogan even knew about the existence of leetspeak. See also the article on leetspeak. --Ashmodai 00:05, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Pronunciation

The Wikipedia manual of style for pronunciation recommends using the International Phonetic Alphabet over pronunciation schemes based on traditional English spelling. I'd be happy to convert the pronunciations provided into IPA, but they're a little too ambiguous for me. (e.g., is that "BRU" as in "brother" or does the vowel match the Danish pronunciation of "ø"? BRO as in "broke"?, "bun" as in "bunt"? etc...) Could someone please clarify? I've used Brøderbund software before, but never heard the name pronounced aloud, so I can't really guess. -- Calcwatch 02:19, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

Publicly it was Bro- as in broke. Internally it was Bru- that rhymes with "stew". In all cases the -erbund was pronounced phonetically in American English, so the -bund rhymed with "bun". What I've seen elsewhere on Wikipedia is that both the international phonetic pronunciation and either American, English or both pronunciations are spelled in standard text. The argument in each case is that most readers don't understand the international version, so it is included for consistency but the other versions are also included for clarity. Coll7 09:29, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

No matter how the "u" in "bru-der-bund" is supposed to be pronounced (like in "look", like in "cut", like in "you" or like the French "u" or German "ü"), I can't fathom how it could sound even remotely like ø. My guess the employees had no idea how ø is pronounced and simply made a wild guess. JIP | Talk 19:52, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Broderbund.jpg

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BetacommandBot (talk) 04:18, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] DSS Agent

There is spyware within many Broderbund programs called DSS agent. I can't be bothered to do the research myself, so I'll leave it up to you. All I know is i caught it from "The logical Journey of the Zoombinis". —Preceding unsigned comment added by Randomini (talk • contribs) 00:33, 3 April 2008 (UTC)