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SuSE 'Name-the-Mascot' Contest is Over
radja writes: "The SuSE chameleon has a new name: Geeko. E-mail to the winners was sent yesterday, so if you joined the contest, check your mail."
Radja was pleasantly surprised to receive such mail, and looks forward to getting a plush Geeko and the coming 6.4 distro. Check out the results on the SuSE news page.
But the lizard depicted in the logo is a chameleon. "geeko" is meant to be like "gecko" and that's NOT a gecko. :(
Hmmm, that's a tough one. I can't think of anything that describes the full meaning of "geek" in German. "Geek" and "nerd" are both words that I believe are used in German, b/c if you try to translate it, you end up with something along the lines of "you know, a pale skinny guy with coke-bottle-glasses, physcially attached to a keyboard (the geek, not the coke-bottle-glasses, these are attached to the screen) of a computer, who doesn't have a life and spends all his waking hours in front of the computer, cranking code or playing MUDS. It's obviously not necessary to mention he can't get a girlfriend. Has pimply skin, most likely, too."
:-)
The German language is designed to make loooooooong long complicated sentences. Putting all this information into one short word, doesn't make sense to Germans.
-- "Tradition is the illusion of permanence."
Ever since I read Linus' explanation why he chose the Penguin or what the mascott should look like, I can't help but keep thinking of Tux as happy in just-got-laid-happy.
This won't work with Geeko, I think...
-- "Tradition is the illusion of permanence."
geeko was his nameo
We seem to heave a dearth of "cool" (to the masses) mascots. Sure, there's Tux, but then there's also the dude in the red fedora. Geeko falls somewhere in the middle for me. We need more Tux-like creatures. Maybe Susie coulda been a girlfriend for him or something. Don't get me wrong, I'm a geek and proud of it. But I'd like to see what would happen with Tux, Susie (if they had made that the mascot) and the BSD Daemon if they got together and partied. The possibilities are limitless!
as in Suse + Linux = Sux...
I thought it was funny.
(And what happens if it's only 8-bit?)
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
On the other hand, I think that they'll honestly regret calling it Geeko. I think that's going to be a "one-day wonder". By this time tomorrow, I suspect few (if any) will use that name. Anyone who uses a name at all will use their own.
Personally, I think the mascot looks more like a piece of "ancient world" art, and a name that reflected longevity would do much better than a slang term that's already out-dated and passing into oblivion.
(How many IT Department employees are still called the Backroom Boys? Boffins? Egg-heads? Nerds are now a type of candy, and Geek is over-due for the dustbin.)
Hey, this leads me into a REAL "name-the" competition. What should above-average tech folk be called? If all the older terms are either dead as a doornail, sexist, or both, what would be a great, collective way to describe such people?
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
I believe I speak for everyone when I say: UGH
Other Failed SuSE Mascot Names
*Dorko
*Nerdo
*David Hasslehoff (already taken)
*Phil, the Pants Lizard
*Monica
It is the German equivalent of antidisestablishmentarian, simply the longest word in the language.
The 'Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaft' was the 'Danube steamship company', an Austrian company that closed down 2 or 3 years ago after having existed for over 100 years. As to the 'kapitän' bit, you got it.
Mielipiteet omiani - Opinions personal, facts suspect.
This is not a troll or flamebait. I respect SuSE. I really do. Anyone who can win a landwar in Europe the way they have against RedHat has to be doing something right.
With that said, I must now vent against SuSE's mascot, which to me (and lots of other people, I assume) looks like a green turd with legs and a face. Everyone knows Shakespeare's quote that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, and most people know the common variation on that quote about excrement smelling just as sweet, and I for one find it quite appropos here.
RedHat's shadowman is somehow mysterious. Tux is adorable. The idea of a chameleon has a lot of promise, both for its symbolism and because it has a lot of untapped cuteness-value that could be unearthed and exploited (and maybe plush stuffed-animals is a step in the right direction). But please, SuSE, give the lizard a makeover.
And lest anyone think it's just a crappy slashdot rendition, here's the actual logo from SuSE's website).
For comparison, an actual green chameleon from Kenya. Real chameleons are adroit climbers and skillful hunters with long strong muscular legs. SuSE's chameleon is perched on two pairs of stubby little legs (grossly out of proportion with the rest of its body) and sadly looks like it's about to fall over and die from asphyxiation like a sheep lying on its back. SuSE's chameleon wouldn't have a chance in hell of surviving in the wild (compared with, say, Tux as portrayed on extremelinux.com), which is not the message that we'd like to send about SuSE's distribution in particular or about Linux in general.
And as for the name, that issue's been beaten to death already. Alas, crappy ideas never die in the minds of marketers.
"If one is really a superior person, the fact is likely to leak out without too much assistance" -- John Andrew Holmes