> From: Luke Mewburn <lukem@NetBSD.org>
> To: netbsd-announce@NetBSD.org
> Subject: NetBSD logo design competition
...
> The NetBSD Foundation is retiring the existing NetBSD daemon identity
> and is adopting a new logo.  To that end we are launching an
...
> The following problems have been identified with the current identity:
>     *	Too complicated.
>     *	Hard to reproduce.
>     *	Has negative cultural, and religious ramifications.
> 
> Some suggested themes for the new identity include:
>     *	An animal character such as the Linux `Tux' penguin (4) or
> 	Darwin `Hexley' platypus (2).
>     * 	An abstract symbol conveying the goals and spirit of open source
> 	technology.
>     *	A logo based on the letter-forms of the organization name (NetBSD).


A daemon:  A pre-christian helper spirit (more or less).

The church was big on subverting local beliefs, symbols and
holidays into their own (no biblical scholar believes that the
man called christ was born mid-winter, but between solstice
and saturnalia, it's a fine time to move the holiday too).

Don't like McKusick and Lassiter's little beastie?  (bsd?  beastie?
get it?)  Suck it up.

The Iwo Jima thing is pretty complex and a poor logo.  (the
NetBSDiality of beastie + tux was pretty freaking rude).

But our little daemon friend is a fine character for a logo.

What's wrong? Are we losing marketshare among christian fundamentalists?

Using Beastie, a spirit, certainly conveys the Spirit of Open Source.

-And the plushie toys are cuddley and children love him.
-Not like some stinky bird that can't even fly and has fish breath.
-Or a platypus - the mutant accident of evolution where a large
 commercial company finally realizes their core OS is crap so
 they consume a unix and end up with something that's not really
 open and not really proprietary.

Perhaps beastie as a wombat?  Or a pigeon - like NetBSD, you
can find it everywhere, running on everything.

Iwo Jima awkward.
Daemons good.