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Subject:Re: De-install/Un-install/Uninstall? From:"Thiessen, Christopher E" <Christopher -dot- E -dot- Thiessen -at- CDEV -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 3 Apr 1997 20:02:45 -0600
Linguistically speaking, the prefix "de-" connotes "doing the opposite of,"
while
"un-" connotes "not."
So, my personal preference is for de-install (using the hyphen to prevent
reader's confusion with word recognition).
Chris Thiessen
christopher -dot- e -dot- thiessen -at- cdev -dot- com
----------
From: Wayne J. Douglass
To: Technical Writers List; for al
Subject: Re: De-install/Un-install/Uninstall?
Date: Thursday, April 03, 1997 11:48AM
At 09:26 AM 4/3/97 -0800, John Wheeler wrote:
>Hi. We're a software company. One of our products has a script
>to undo or remove a previously installed product. We'd like to
>say something to the effect:
>
>"To uninstall this product, do XYZ..."
>
>We're not sure about the term "uninstall". Other candidate terms are:
>
>de-install
>deinstall
>un-install
>
>Has anyone faced this particular issue before and decided on
>an appropriate term? Or would any grammatical guru care to
>give guidance?
>
Uninstall sucks, but it already seems pervasive, at least on the Windows
side. I prefer remove myself.
"We're a software company." Since you're from Cisco, that may be the
understatement of the year, John.
--Wayne Douglass
=========================================================
Verity, Inc. Email: wayned -at- verity -dot- com
894 Ross Drive Telephone: 408-542-2139
Sunnyvale, CA 94089 Facsimile: 408-542-2040
Connecting People with Information: http://www.verity.com
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