Subject: Re: NetBSD logo design competition
To: None <ianh@tpchd.org, netbsd-users@netbsd.org>
From: Johan A.van Zanten <johan@giantfoo.org>
List: netbsd-users
Date: 01/15/2004 14:10:55
"Ian Harding" <ianh@tpchd.org> wrote:
> God I wish it was.  I got told in no uncertain terms to take the logo
> off our internal intranet site.  It offended some prissy people.  We
> have to cater to the prissiest among us.  It makes me want to puke.

"Jesus HP Laser Jet Christ!"

Oh, i guess i can't say that either...

> So, will we be the only *BSD without the beastie?

 As others have pointed out, OpenBSD and DragonflyBSD have both switched
to other characters. (Partially or entirely.)

However, unlike OpenBSD or DragonflyBSD, NetBSD was (more-or-less) a
continuation of the BSD project (rather than a fork of another BSD-derived
project), and dropping the mascot of that program suggests to me that
perhaps NetBSD no longer cares about that lineage and history.

  The acronym "BSD" and the daemon image are tightly coupled in my
mind. Perhaps when getting rid of the BSD mascot, NetBSD should also
remove the "BSD" from its name?  But being just "Net" seems kinda
silly. So then perhaps become "YACFULOS" ("Yet Another Collaborative Free
Unix-Like Operating System") or something.

 I'm greatly saddened by this.  And i'm not just saying this because i
have the 4.3 BSD book-cover daemon tattood on my left leg.

http://www.giantfoo.org/~johan/Images/Animals/Humans/johan/BSD-tattoo-1.jpeg

(.... which is copyrighted by Marshall Kirk McKusick)


 At the end of the day, what really matters (or should really matter) is
the quality of the project (the OS, code, interactions of the community),
not the superficial window dressing.  But ironically, i think the current
plan to dump the daemon is just that: change solely for appearances'
sake. And i doubt many places will suddenly choose NetBSD instead of Linux
or FreeBSD just because there's no longer a cute little daemon logo.


Oh, and what's going to happen to the stuff in here?:

http://www.netbsd.org/gallery/devotionalia.html 


And is NetBSD still going to accept proceeds of sales of t-shirts with the
daemon on them?


 All of that being said, i'm not against any sort of change.  I can
readily understand how the currnet logo could be difficult to reproduce or
work with.  It is complicated and non-trivial to draw.  And i can even
understand how some people might dislike the militaristic Iwo Jima
reference.

 But can we please save the daemon?

 -johan