What is a Laszlo?

[hrucker]

What is a Laszlo, and why is the company named Laszlo? I have my own perspective, but I'd like to hear others.

[antun]

I believe it's something to do with a cat.

[Anne]

Perhaps it has something to do with an obscure bauhaus photographer... or maybe a WWII resistence leader?

[girardjf]

Or, perhaps it's a reference to Hunter S. Thomson's figment attorney?

This would be the comedic choice.

:)

[hrucker]

OK, my theory goes like this.

Years ago, Rucker Design Group built product prototypes for @Home. Several of the Laszlo founders worked at @Home together.

Peter Andrea was a designer at RDG and often worked on @Home projects.

Most of the demos required a fictitious user, and Peter always used the name Laszlo.

Is that the origin?

[antun]

I still reckon it's something to do with a cat.

[Anne]

I think Peter's fictitious user was the name of his kitty who was named for the obscure photographer who had the same name as the fictitious Casablanca resistence leader...

[quasimidi]

Laszlo is a hungarian name (in my language: László). We had two kings in the year of 1040 (László the Saint) and 1490 (Ulászló the Second). They were great kings of Hungary, unfortunately they were both killed by their own people.

Laszlo is a famous name, almost like Attila the Hun (yes, he was also hungarian)

btw. there is a great site about my country with castles and medieval history.
http://syrius.elte.hu/varak/en-main.htm

I have no idea why is this name was chosen for this company, but I take it as a nice guesture to my nation.
Keep up the good work!

Oh, and here is a sculpture of King Laszlo the Saint

[whisperstorm]

In all honesty laszlosystems doesnt fall trippingly off the tongue like Flash, or Shockwave. Lasz might be a nice abbreviation, though it looks at little like "Lazy"

[quasimidi]

:) Maybe Leslie Systems?

[antun]

Ahhhh but remember with programming, lazy is good.

Originally posted by whisperstorm
In all honesty laszlosystems doesnt fall trippingly off the tongue like Flash, or Shockwave. Lasz might be a nice abbreviation, though it looks at little like "Lazy"

[vis]

Maybe, Laszlo was named after the bar ?
This bar is not far from Laszlo Systems in San Francisco.

http://www.sfstation.com/bars/laszlo/

Laszlo, an alias for the infamous French bad boy in Jean Luc Godard's "Breathless", is a multi-level DJ bar located in the heart of the Mission serving a variety of beats, cocktails and appetizers from Foreign Cinema (next door) in a setting fit for any upscale, charismatic young hot head.

[hqm]

The uber-hacker in the movie Real Genius was named Laszlo.

[mdavis]

The phrases "Laszlo buddy!" and "Hollyfeld, Laszlo Hollyfeld" ran through my mind when first researching Laszlo Systems.

hqm beat me to the referene though... :)

[csekk]

please tell the true!

[jsundman]

Here's what I believe:

Peter Andrea, a graphic designer who was a co-founder of Laszlo Systems, had a cat named Laszlo, in honor of the Hungarian artist Laszlo Maholy-Nagy.

http://www.eastman.org/fm/amico99/htmlsrc2/moholy_sld00001.html

The company was named in honor of Peter's cat.

Peter is still employed at Laszlo Systems. He is responsible for much of the polished look of the Laszlo components and of LaszloMail. I don't know whether Laszlo the cat is still around.

It's also true that several of Laszlo's founders and orignal employees worked together at excite@home.

This story has never been officially confirmed, as far as I know. Laszlo old-timers like to keep the mystery alive. Nevertheless I believe that it's true.

I've been a Laszlo employee for three years, but Peter & the founders have been around for 6 years, so I don't count as an old-timer. If you want an official "official" version you'll have to get one of the company's founders to speak up. Good luck with that.