A ways back there was some talk about a new image for the NetBSD main
web-page.  Some ideas (and images) were batted around.  Since I still
prefer the old image to the ones I've seen offered, and some seemed ready
to throw the old image out for *anything* else, I've given thought to what
I think would do as a replacement.  Since I'm not making any headway on
constructing the image, I thought that I'd share a description of it.
Who knows, maybe the idea will appeal to someone with the time & ability
to execute it.


The idea is to have a daemon sitting on a rock at C (err, sea; sorry).
Could be morning, could be afternoon.  The fork, of course, is resting
close at hand, but the daemon is presently occupied with a net.  The links
between the nodes in the net could have a soft, electric blue color.
There might be another daemon or two helping out (3 is always a good
number).

The ``logo version'' of the image would be just an abstraction of the net
(the same outline, but perhaps fewer nodes/strands and little/no color).


There's some more (and maybe less) obvious symbolism in the above
description.  Some (sea/C) are just bad puns, but then what was the daemon
and the fork (and the pipes in the legendary Foglio image) in the first
place?  Color would work well (I know people like color).  And it
parallels no image that I know of, nor suggests any historical event, so
it should be free from the kind of offence (or ``impropriety'' as one
would have it) that the old image has been associated with.  At the same
time, the ``warm fuzzy'' feel of the image in my head is nice.

(Hm.  It just hit me that there *is* one possible negative interpretation
of the above, but it was not intended in the concept.  I suspect that only
someone looking for a reason to object to the image would see it.)


I will say of the net: In my mind it reflects not only the Internet,
honored in the name ``NetBSD'', but also the processes running within a
computer, talking to one another, as well as the people communicating and
working together.  In no case, perhaps, achieving perfect reflection (and
such reflection not being visible in a few pixels anyway), but
conceptually, ideally, there.


What about NetBSD's portability?  Two possible answers.  One is that the
``rock'' could be a pile of various computers (and the daemons might be
carrying hand-helds).  The other answer is that the right-most column of
the main web-page speaks even more, perhaps, than the gathering of
computers in the present image.

I don't know where (or if) the word ``NetBSD'' fits into this picture,
though.  (Maybe it's in the net?)  (^&


Anyway, I thought that I'd offer up the idea, in the hopes that someone
would like it enough to run with it---if there is ever a firm decision to
retire the present image.

(Did I mention that the daemon's name is probably Ed?  (duck))


  ``I probably don't know what I'm talking about.'' --rauch@math.rice.edu