I realize this Bug may seem petty. I apologize in advance for that. I think I remember that the original Project Title was chosen for a French word, however in the English language (and any English Dialect) the word/term "parole" has some INTENSELY negative baggage attached to it. Most frequently it refers to criminals who have completed their entire or an suspended sentence, and have been released under conditional circumstances with an incompleted sentencing. Here is the Merriam-Webster definition URL for the word: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/parole Here is the Dictionary.com definition URL for the word: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/parole?s=t Admittedly I seriously doubt the Project members either are aware of the stigma attached to the word in the English language (and I am far from suggesting that all things "pass an English Language litmus test". However I was submitting this Informative Bug, to bring up the point that having such a fantastically performing and useful application that is evolving quickly and nicely should deserve to suffer any kind of "poor reception" by a large percentage of the world's speakers (Again, apologies as I do comprehend an English dialect is NOT everyone's primary, secondary. or tertiary language); Personally I would like to see this application receive any (misinterpereted) negative association by ANY of its potential user base. I feel that as a "marketing" consideration, a more neutral, less stigmatized or negatively charged term/name could BETTER suit such a fine, up and coming application to enable quicker adoptation by potential users; as well as removing a highly possible (though accidental) negative association being made with this fine application. That said, I apologize if (and I probably have) ruffled the feathers of those involved in the project or its user-base. It would just be a same to see more comments on the web such as those stating "it is called _parole_? what were the app designers THINKING when they named this" (not my words). Perhaps I may suggest a poll be made for alternative and neutral names for this project so the "XFCE" community could add their opinions on the topic?
Since "Thunar" is named after the Norse God of Thunder, I'll kick off a suggestion which fits in with Naming from Norse Mythology: perhaps "Saga" would be a good fit, as it refers to a Goddess in the Norse Pantheon associated with Storytelling. Also in movie-genre parlance, a "saga" is defined as "any narrative or legend of heroic exploits. Synonyms: epic, tale, history." which Movies and Videos portray a narrative of events on-screen. Example of Motion Picture "sagas": The Matrix Trilogy, The Lord Of The Rings (all), (insert your favorite saga here) Source: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Saga?s=t definition 2. This post was meant to inspire reflection and inspire suggestion. I mean no disrespect to the developers.
Another idea would be XFCinema, or in the spirit of the XFCE Terminal Emulator simply being named "Terminal" perhaps "Cinima" would suffice.
After some consideration and discussion with Sean, we will stick with the current project name. Partly that is because we're not the original authors, only the maintainers (so we'd actually have to fork Parole to give the project a new name), partly it's because we don't see the connotation as troubling as you (Sean is also a native speaker).