About our name¶

Our name is pronounced “sinn-odal”, not “sine-odal”, the “syn” is like in “synchronize”, “symphony” or “symptom”.

The word “synodal” comes from greek συν (together) and ὁδός (journey). These two words seem to us a good way to describe our characteristic way of doing business. We show an innovative way of doing software development business in a post-growth economy. See Synodal software development.

Until January 2023 we used the name “Lino Software Foundation” (LSF) when speaking about what we now call the “Synodalsoft project”. The name LSF was inspired by the PSF, the DSF or the WMF. But there were at least two good reasons to avoid the name “Lino” for a legal person:

• “Lino” is a registered trademark in some countries

• the Lino framework is not our only product

Our name may remind concepts like synod and synodality, but let us say clearly that the Synodalsoft project does neither depend on any church organization, nor does it promote any religious doctrine, nor do we expect our workers to follow any particular religion.