I see absolutely no sense in translating real names to Esperanto. My first name is "Paul", and that's what my documents and passport say, so "Paŭlo", just isn't my first name. After all, if I went to Spain, my name wouldn't get "Pablo" either, would it?

The same applies to product names. I see no sense in using "Vindozo" for "Windows".

Regarding fictional names, of course you can call them however you wish, even "Paŭlo".

I think Vindozo is virtually Esperanto slang (not sure though). If I'm speaking in EO I might say "Vindozo" but if I'm writing something formally about it I'd change to the actual US registered product name - Windows. So I guess it's just slang, just like I might say "Radelaide" in English when referring to the city Adelaide (it's not the proper form in Aussie English, but its fun to alternate provided everyone knows what on earth I'm on about ).

darkweasel:I see absolutely no sense in translating real names to Esperanto. My first name is "Paul", and that's what my documents and passport say, so "Paŭlo", just isn't my first name.

Generally I agree. But there exists lots of names which many persons from other countries can not pronounce. Esperanto versions of this names would be a solution for that. In my opinion, it's also matters personal "spiritual identity" (does there excist a english word for this?). So if somebody wanna show this part of "Esperanto" identity s/he could use that translated name. Just to show to other people: "Hej, mi estas Esperantisto".

ceigered:So I guess it's just slang, just like I might say "Radelaide" in English when referring to the city Adelaide (it's not the proper form in Aussie English, but its fun to alternate provided everyone knows what on earth I'm on about ).

I don't understand the fun factor behind that. What does it mean? Yes, I have been in Adelaide a couple of weeks some years ago.

Writing 'Windows' in Esperanto makes no more sense than writing a Chinese name in Chinese symbols in Esperanto.

Rogir:Writing 'Windows' in Esperanto makes no more sense than writing a Chinese name in Chinese symbols in Esperanto.

I find it kinda funny with loanwords and names... if they're written with the Latin alphabet, you can probably get away with not changing them for Esperanto. But if you're using Chinese or Japanese characters, or writing in Russian or Arabic, very few people would be able to understand it in the Esperanto community.

I definitely agree on the aspect of translating your name so that others can pronounce it. In a very international atmosphere, it can decrease confusion and discomfort if people are using names that others can pronounce. Some people also like how when using an Esperanto name, their name fits well into Esperanto grammar, and you can use all of the Esperanto endings on it. ("Ĉesu diri Erinjaĵojn!" - Stop saying Erinisms!)

qwertz:I don't understand the fun factor behind that. What does it mean? Yes, I have been in Adelaide a couple of weeks some years ago.

It's a portmanteau of "Rad" (cool) and "Adelade" - very lame I know .

And I agree somewhere between Darkweasel and Erinja. It ultimately depends who your audience is, as considering we're talking to Esperantists, it's not exactly strange to Esperanticise things. Happens in natural languages all the time - some Australians won't pronounce "Wiener Schnitzel" as 'vi:na 'SnIts@l' or however someone from Vienna would say it - rather an Aussie might say something that would be better spelt as "weena snitsuw'. But when talking to a German in German he'll definitely correct his own speech so the German can better understand him (well, he should at least, and if not, the German should feel free to say "paflofa" back to him ) . Same thing for place names - London is pretty much spelt London everywhere, but the French spell Adelaide as "Adelaïde", the Polish as "Adelajda", neither of which match the original name (although some Americans might think so, that's because they have such a closed "ej" sound ).

Ultimately, it's natural for foreign vocabulary to be mutilated by languages, especially if the writing system is different, sound set different or if in EO's case there can be no irregularities (in English, Windows already is spelt somewhat ambiguously anyway). Heck, in Japanese, even where they use Romaji all the time, "Windows" is sometimes spelt "Uindouzu".
Ultimately however anything foreign to the language is slaughtered is no big deal.

(and sorry for the overuse of the examples of "adelaide" and "windows", not feeling too creative at the moment).

"Wiener Schnitzel" is pronounced "vina ŝnicl" in German With a long "i", short "a" and short "i".

@Rogir: I disagree because every Esperantist can type the name "Windows" on his keyboard (unlike some Chinese characters)!

Concerning pronouncability (does this word exist?): There are rules about the pronunciation of Q, W, X, Y. As a result, every Esperantist can pronounce such names.

Concerning Esperanto endings: I see no problem with an adjective "Windowsa" or a "Windowsaĵo". I generally use "nur-Windowsa" for "Windows-only". If you can't live with these constructions for some reason, use a hyphen: "Windows-a", "Windows-aĵo", "nur-Windows-a". The accusative of "Windows" is "Windowson, "Windows'on" or (in written form, as you can't pronounce that) "Windows'n" (but not *na Windows* ^^)

Note that I'm talking about product names. Most languages I know don't change product names when borrowing them, but they do change place names, so I generally Esperantize those. As a result, I live in "Aŭstrujo", in the city "Vieno", in the district "Danuburbo", but I use "Firefox" on "Ubuntu", which is a "Linux" distribution, and my mobile phone is a "T-Mobile Pulse" that runs "Android".

(mi loĝas en Aŭstrujo, en la urbo Vieno, en la distrikto Danuburbo, sed mi uzas Firefoxon sur Ubuntu, kiu estas Linuxa distribuaĵo, kaj mia poŝtelefono estas T-Mobile Pulse kiu uzas Androidon)

I believe that the real reason people use *Linukso* and *Vindozo* and so on is that "Linux" is messed up with the x-system (*Linŭ*) ...

Good points Darkweasel - and thanks for fixing my badly rendered attempt of writing the pronunciation of Wiener Schnitzel using X-Sampa .

Kinda off topic, but Windowsaĵo I must say looks extremely cool for a word!

Quite frankly, I feel really weird with words like Windows in Esperanto. Windows is American software and I'm an American. I pronounce the word "Windows" with an native American accent, which could ostensibly be considered the most "accurate" name of the software, since that's what the makers of Windows (=Americans) would call it themselves. Does that mean that I should put this weird American-accented word into the middle of an Esperanto sentence? And if I were to pronounce the word Windows with an Esperanto (=foreign to English, native to Esperanto) accent, I am already nativizing it to an extent. So my choices are either to say a single word with a foreign (=foreign to Esperanto, native to English) accent in my Esperanto speech, making it stand out strangely, OR to Esperantize the word. I choose to say Vindozo. I consider it to be the correct Esperanto form of the word, the native Esperanto form.

Because when I speak English, I don't say the word "Esperanto" with an Esperanto accent. Some people do that and it makes them sound weirdly stuck-up. And when I talk about Esperantists, I call them Esperantists, not "esperantistoj". I am assimilating an Esperanto word into English to suit my audience. I think that assimilating the names of software that is known worldwide is completely appropriate. I would not assimilate software names that people abroad would be unlikely to have heard of anyway. So, I use a computer running Vindozo, I am not very comfortable using Linukso, my preferred web browser used to be Fajrovulpo (but now my preferred web browser is Chrome - note how I go back to the native name, I don't consider Chrome to be sufficiently widely known yet). I do word processing with Vorto. I once learned to use AutoCAD and ProEngineer but am not very good with them anymore. (and for reference, if I was talking with an Esperanto speaker who used these pieces of software, I suspect that for talking between us, we'd start saying Kromo, Aŭtokado, Pro-inĝeniero. It doesn't matter much when writing but when speaking I find it so weird to include these words, for the accent-related reasons I mentioned above.)