[tjfontaine]

Here's a different reason (jbergstroem also alludes to [1]) why Docker (the company) would rename Docker (the open source project) to a name that cannot be confused with Docker (the product): Trademark (Enforcement).

How do you (a for profit company built on open source) enable your community, to build and sell (their own) products, as well as enforce your trademark? If anyone (everyone?) can build and distribute and call their build `docker`, it becomes really hard to protect your investment (as a company and their fiduciary responsibility to their stock holders) from dilution of TheBrand(tm).

This is not cynicism and I don't fault Docker (the company) at all, it's just the reality of doing business. It's why Canonical requires a contractual relationship for infrastructure clouds to distribute Ubuntu images, it's why you have things like Firefox and IceWeasel, so on and so forth.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14140543

[dandandan]

It's also an easy way to acquire more paying users. "Docker" has the name recognition now, if someone wants to adopt it after hearing about it they're likely to choose the paid product.