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GratiSoft History

GratiSoft was originally Courtesan. The name change came about because a) I was not actually doing any real consulting and b) I wanted a name that had something to do with free software. The name is derived from the French word gratis (free) and the English word software. Since GratiSoft provides support for free software, I felt the name should reflect this.

I had been toying with the idea of offering commerical support for sudo for several years and I finally took the pluge; GratiSoft was incorporated in the state of Colorado in 2004.

I intend to retain the courtesan.com domain for the forseeable future since there are numerous references to it on the web that I do not wish to break.

I originally chose the name `Courtesan Consulting' to be a pun. Both the courtesan and the consultant sell themselves for money, both are/were more or less respectable professions, and neither one is terribly popular with the people whom they displace.