NetBSD Chooses New Logo

jschauma writes "Live from EuroBSDCon 2004: The NetBSD Project announces its new logo. The logo was selected out of over 400 submissions in an albeit lengthy process, where the developers considered various important aspects of a new identifying logo. See the official logo contest announcement (to refresh your memory) and the official press release."

Comments

More corporate looking

[fembots]

The new logo certainly has more corporate appeal, and its simplicity also allows different colors to be used, which means easier to place on different color background.

Coupled with a trademark, this might enough for people to push it to PHB.

Re:More corporate looking

[ajs]

I'm curious, did the BSDs ever resolve the "disagreement" (I put it in quotes because the nature or extent of it and who exactly it was directed at was never clear to the public) between themselves and Phil Foglio? As I recall, it was Phil's Daemon design for one of the early Unix conferences that inspired the modern BSD daemon (I've seen the original T-shirt once, it's pretty cool).

Here's one person's recollection of the history of the Daemon design.

Re:More corporate looking

[eyeye]

But while we are on the subject a funny story about it :-)

New Logo

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe a headstone would be a more appropriate logo, no?

Re:New Logo

[Zoko Siman]

Netcraft confirms it, kicking a dead horse is still fun.

Albeit?

[HawaiianMayan]

Try "in a lengthy process".

If you don't know how to use big words, please don't bother trying.

Re:Albeit?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you don't know how to use big words, please don't bother trying.

Albeit is not that big a word. Medium at most.

Re:Albeit?

[Paradise Pete]

parent shouldn't be modded flamebait, his comment is obviously correct

A post can be factually correct and still be flamebait.
You fucking moron. (There, see?)

("You fucking moron" is for illustrative purposes. Parent poster may or may not actually be a fucking moron.)

hmm

[nomadic]

I like it. Clean and attractive. Maybe someone can get that guy to design a new logo/mascot for linux, something other than that annoying-looking penguin.

Re:hmm

[superpulpsicle]

I don't know about this NetBSD logo. Out of all the unix flavors, whether you like the OS or not, Sun Microsystem still have the most intelligent logo.

The linux penguin looks so damn friendly. We need an elite-looking penguin symbol, like the Atlanta Falcons logo.

Re:hmm

[lspd]

I like it. Clean and attractive

I'd call it bland and meaningless, but YMMV. The press release says nothing about why this particular logo was chosen and doesn't mention the color of the flag at all. The color of a flag is supposed to mean something. Orange is usually a warning sign, as in the orange flags on kids bicycles or the orange flags on beaches to indicate hazardous swimming.

So why orange?

Re:hmm

[nomadic]

So why orange?

To warn people how frustrating installing netbsd will be?

Re:hmm

[arivanov]

I'd call it bland and meaningless

Objection your honour.

It is the flag from the old logo taken solely and transplanted. So anyone who has been around long enough to remember the old logo knows what it means. A bunch of d(a)emons sticking the banner on top of a mound of old computer kit. At the same time you can now present it to the PHB. He now no longer sees an image of satanistic computer abuse. You can now even put it on your website and say "driven by NetBSD" without being called onto the carpet.

I do not like the reasons why it is being done, but let's face it, the realm of free Unixes is no longer a realm of geeks. It is a large business now and NetBSD has its place in it.

Re:hmm

[nomadic]

I'd settle for something a little stylized, like this one.

Re:hmm

[lspd]

It is the flag from the old logo taken solely and transplanted. So anyone who has been around long enough to remember the old logo knows what it means.

Certainly a valid point. The slant of the flag pole indicates a team effort, even if the symbolism is lost on anyone who hasn't seen the old logo. Still, why is the flag orange?

Re:hmm

[Nutria]

he press release says nothing about why this particular logo

But puke liberal political correctness is the reason that the old logo was tossed.

http://mail-index.netbsd.org/netbsd-advocacy/2004/ 01/14/0001.html

"Has negative cultural, and religious ramifications."

Although, for the life of me, I can't figure out what "religious ramification" the USMC War Memorial has.

And, of course, the "negative cultural ramifications" is "defeat of really nasty aggressor regeime". Just ask the Chinese, Koreans, Philippines, Viet Namese, etc.

Re:hmm

[nomadic]

Perhaps it was offensive to those marines who risked their lives to raise the flag there. Seeing the symbol of their courage turned into an operating system logo, where your fellow marines are depicted as devils might be a tad disrespectful. Call me politically correct, but I think I agree with them.

Although, for the life of me, I can't figure out what "religious ramification" the USMC War Memorial has.

I think you know perfectly well they were talking about the devils.

Hmmm

[ShatteredDream]

So they dropped the BSD devils? I wonder what happened? Did somebody send a few planes full of Southern Baptists and Jehova's Witnesses over to Europe to have a little chat with the NetBSD team?

Re:Hmmm

[noselasd]

This is about a new logo, not about a mascot. A logo is not a mascot.

Re:Hmmm

[0racle]

I believe it was because the BSD Daemon is more closely associated with FreeBSD and the NetBSD team wanted something that was more their own. Some one also pointed out the 'raising the flag over iwo jima' might have been a touchy point for some people, especially as NetBSD moves more and more into corporate environments around the world.

BTW some people that believe in the Bible and are Christians actually do have a sense of humour. I personally painted the little devil guy onto my FreeBSD system.

Re:Hmmm

[sydb]

I don't know about being Christian but there's no need to have belief in the Bible. It's a fact. It does exist. I've seen it on several occasions (usually in hotels for some reason).

So, it's no longer a matter of faith. The Bible is for real.

Re:Hmmm

[geminidomino]

Daemons, please. Not devils. *BSD takes your sanity, not your soul. ;)

Re:Hmmm

[Tony Hoyle]

Yes this gideon bloke keeps leaving his behind in the hotels I visit.

Damn forgetfull, if you ask me....

Re:Hmmm

[MikeXpop]

Yes. They decided the devil was a little too risque, so they all decided on a more subtle, politically friendlier logo.

Logo Contest

[base_chakra]

Well, this was a long time coming, but I'm really pleased with the new logo. For a while I was wondering if the long delay meant that all the contest submissions were rubbish! In case you're wondering, the official reason for the long processing time was twofold: 1) the selection process (of course), and 2) the legal transfer of the logo from the artist to the NetBSD Foundation.

A month ago this item appeared in the NetBSD Quarterly Status Report:

"As announced in the last quarterly status report, the NetBSD Project has reviewed all of the entries submitted to the international competition for the creation of a new logo. Members of the NetBSD Foundation voted for the new logo from a short-list of six submitted designs selected by the logo committee. Characteristics important for the new logo were simplicity, appealing form and color choice, and dentification with the project.

"At this point, a new logo has been selected the last formal step -- the process of transferring the Intellectual Property from the artist to the NetBSD Foundation (which includes the time-consuming but important careful review of some legal documents by a lawyer to ensure that everything is done correctly and appropriately) -- is virtually completed. Updating the website and creating imagery from the master copy are the last steps that need to be resolved. It is unfortunate that this procedure has delayed the official announcement of the new logo even further; the NetBSD Project would like to thank all users for their patience."

What is the signifigance?

[Beautyon]

Of putting a snake's tounge at the end of a pool cue?

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

favicon?

[dankelley]

What will the favicon look like? The logo is nice, but work will have to be done to simplify the fine elements of the design, so that they don't turn to fuzz in small versions of the image.

Re:favicon?

[base_chakra]

What will the favicon look like? The logo is nice, but work will have to be done to simplify the fine elements of the design, so that they don't turn to fuzz in small versions of the image.

Probably just the flag. Logos that have both text and graphical elements are often reduced to graphical emblems for certain purposes. The flag should scale to 16x16 with relative ease.

Obligatory Tired Cliché!

[The-Bus]

Netcraft confirms! The old NetBSD logo is dead!

New Logo

[Nikkos]

The new logo looks very clean and professional. However, I would have liked to see a logo that continued on with the "team" aspect of the old logo.

It's not the name or the flag that makes NetBSD what it is, it's the people behind it. Unfortunatly that's what was taken out of the logo.

Finally they've raisen the flag.

[Anonymous Coward]

Time for them to recognize the defeat against other OSes.

We accept your surrender.

Re:Finally they've raisen the flag.

[sydb]

I won't celebrate until they've sultana the flag.

an albeit lengthy process?

[bwy]

You keep using that word. I don't think that you know what it means.

Hint- if you've used it right, you should be able to substitute something like "although."

How freaking dumb does "an although lengthy process" sound? Another hint. To an educated person, "an albeit lengthy process" sounds just as dumb. It sounds like someone trying to sound smarter than they actually are.

Not cool enough

[systems]

Personally I am very disapointed
The logo is not cool, not artistic, not insipiring, not anything ...
I really like what OpenBSD did, they know how to play with their logo, I believe this speaks a lot about the attitude of the people behind the project.
And it says, that they like and want to have fun!
NetBSD have made a terrible statement by this logo, this logo declares in my opinion that the NetBSD is not about fun anymore!
I seriously can't imagine a worst logo ...

Re:Not cool enough

[l0rd]

I thought I was the only one reading the replies.

The new logo definately isn't cool. Come on people, Open source projects aren't selling products. They don't have to appeal to brain dead managers.

Open Source is about creating free for all solutions for problems. Everyone's problems, not just your bosses.

I think that, considering the nature of the project, a wrong logo was chosen. It's lame and NOT cool. It also isn't playful in any way. This is something I'd expect from microsoft or redhat, not from a bsd OS. Very dissapointed, to say the least...

Re:Not cool enough

[SoupIsGoodFood_42]

The OpenBDS puffer fish is a good mascot, but a poor logo. It's not simple (infact it seems to change), and doesn't really symbolise anything, with the possible exception of security.

Fun? I though NetBSD was about secure computer systems that run on many platforms? Why would they want a symbol that promotes fun? Are they going to change into an entertainment company? Aren't the mascots supposed to be the "fun" side of a organisations symbolism?

OSS has come of age

[mollusk]

Finally, proof that the OSS community can produce something as generic, uninspired, and forgettable as even the best corporate marketroids. I can't wait for the upcoming Apache Mission Statement contest. ("embiggens a dynamic paradigm in scalable infotecture")

Seriously, is this the best that was submitted? Not trying to flame, but the best feature of a logo is a unique image that's easily remembered. Looking at the NetBSD logo I'm not sure if I'm installing an OS or playing in a CTF clan.

Note to the judges, If the text in your logo needs to be readable to identify your product, it's not a good logo.

Re:OSS has come of age

[ChairmanMeow]

("embiggens a dynamic paradigm in scalable infotecture")

That's a perfectly cromulent statement...

NetBSD Devils != WWII Soldiers

[miket]

As a member of the US Air National Guard I don't like the devils raising the NetBSD flag in the likeness of World War II soldiers raising the Unites States flag over Iwo Jima. I hold the sacrifice of my grandfather's generation sacred.

Re:NetBSD Devils != WWII Soldiers

[zentex]

As a member of the US Air National Guard I don't like the devils raising the NetBSD flag in the likeness of World War II soldiers raising the Unites States flag over Iwo Jima.

Some Soldier you are! If you were better educated, you would know those "World War II Soldiers" were infact U.S. Marines.

err...your only a guardsman, sorry to hold you to higher standards ;-)

I was going to moderate you as flambait, but I felt compelled to set you straight; as my Grandfather was *ON* that island.

Anyways, the previous logo was meant to convey the fact that NetBSD has "conquered" almost all hardware; nothing more. Don't be an idiot.

Re:NetBSD Devils != WWII Soldiers

[Anonymous Coward]

Score: 1, Funny.

Why is this rated funny? I completely agree. I'm not American myself, but I always did think that the old NetBSD logo trivialized something so important and meaningful, ofcourse no bad intentions were ever meant by it, but I never appreciated it.

Re:NetBSD Devils != WWII Soldiers

[Fnkmaster]

Likewise here - my grandfather was a Marine and was on Iwo Jima when the 4th and 5th Marines invaded. I take their sacrifices extremely seriously too, but I think that image has become such a part of the cultural millieu for victory it's hard to hold it as inviolate.

If the image were being used in a way that mocked the sacrifices of the Marines in WWII, then I would understand finding it offensive.

In any case, there were more than enough other things wrong with that old logo to justify trashing it and I'm glad they did. The new logo is an improvement, even if it is a bit bland.

Re:NetBSD Devils != WWII Soldiers

[pnot]

Your unimaginative and immature posting however, profoundly disturbs me... On the other hand, there may possibly be a more rational explaination for your obnoxious behavior; perhaps you're French?

Nice, well-reasoned post, until the final sentence revealed you to be just as unimaginative and immature as the poster to whom you were replying.

Re:NetBSD Devils != WWII Soldiers

[Brandybuck]

Hmmm, you do know that the famous flag raising photo was *staged*? You know that, don't you?

Re:NetBSD Devils != WWII Soldiers

[danimrich]

The act of raising a flag has been depicted on numerous occasions in history, e.g. on a famous painting from the 18th/19th century (can't remember the painter). It's not necessarily a reference to WW2.

Re:NetBSD Devils != WWII Soldiers

[miket]

Some Soldier you are! If you were better educated, you would know those "World War II Soldiers" were infact U.S. Marines.

If I understand what you are saying then, according to you, a US Marine is not a soldier. I disagree with this. I know they are Marines.

your only a guardsman, sorry to hold you to higher standards

I don't know what standards you use but I am required to maintain the same level of readiness and profeciency as the active duty Air Force (but don't get to practice every day), not to mention that every day I work someone trusts me, in part, with his or her life. I believe that those are pretty high standards.

my Grandfather was *ON* that island

I hold your grandfather and all the men and women who fought in that war in the highest respect. My grandfater fought in Europe.

Anyways, the previous logo was meant to convey the fact that NetBSD has "conquered" almost all hardware; nothing more. Don't be an idiot.

This is something that I never new. So that would make me not an idiot, but ignorant. I appreciate you educating me but find your tone to be hightly disrespectful. And that is a shame.

I was going to moderate you as flambait, but I felt compelled to set you straight

I did not intend to draw flames, I just stated my opinion. I didn't realize this was such a hot topic for so many people (well, at least one person). Since I did not blatently attack anyone for no reason and with no factual backing I fail to see how my comment was flamebait. Just because you choose to respond in an inflamatory manner does not make my comment flaimbait. I just felt compelled to set you straight.

Re:NetBSD Devils != WWII Soldiers

[miket]

I can say this, given the tone of the responses to my message coupled with the fact that my comment was rated "Funny" has caused me to loose a great deal of respect for the slashdot community.

To those of you out there who are tolerant of other people's positions, I apologize that you find yourself associated with a group such as this.

Re:NetBSD Devils != WWII Soldiers

[PitaBred]

It was rated funny to keep you from getting as much karma from it.
They didn't want you to get karma because it was a knee-jerk reaction on your part, and a rather stupid one at that. I suppose the mods don't care if you LOSE respect for the community.
One can only be offended if one chooses to be so. Perhaps you should simply lighten up and take it at face value. It wasn't meant as a belittling of that accomplishment in any way, shape or form.
But then again, that's America for you. BTW, I'm offended that you didn't know the real facts of the marines raising the flag, miket. I am 'loosing' respect for you. (that was irony coupled with sarcasm, for those of you who didn't get it)

Re:NetBSD Devils != WWII Soldiers

[EllynGeek]

Tolerant? Of what, idiocy? Oh wait, this is Slashdot, where idiocy is required. Anyway I am definitely not tolerant of your finding the staged photo of raising the flag at Iwo Jima sacred, and somehow turning that into an attack on the NetBSD logo. The "funny" mod is appropriate, 'cause how can that be taken seriously?

Re:NetBSD Devils != WWII Soldiers

[Brandybuck]

...and realized that he would get a second chance to photograph such a historic event.

A "second chance" at history? While we may quibble over the definition of "staged", that photograph has been erroneous portrayed for the last fifty years as the initial flag raising event.

But be that as it may, I'm still distressed that the Slashdot population would so quickly mod my post down as "troll". Did I offend someone? Since when has Slashdot modded down misinformation? Heck, most of the time it gets modded up!

Mirror

[Rufus211]

I think the new logo looks quite nice. Very simple and stylish. Since the site is somewhat slow loading, I threw up a mirror including the large versions.

I'm not sure I'm convinced ...

[Kaemaril]

I don't know, it just seems a little ... bland and generic. Looking at it, if you removed "NetBSD" and substituted virtually any short word or phrase it could just as easily be the logo of a political party, or a company that makes ... well, practically anything, really. It seems ... personality free.

Still, YMMV and all that.

the contest, months of waiting... for THAT?

[ArbitraryConstant]

I'm sorry, but it's really hard to get excited about that logo. Seems to me they wanted to be so neutral, so inoffensive to everyone in the entire world that they picked a logo that means nothing.

That sound you hear is millions of geeks the world over saying "meh".

Re:the contest, months of waiting... for THAT?

[buddha42]

I'm sorry, but it's really hard to get excited about that logo. Seems to me they wanted to be so neutral, so inoffensive to everyone in the entire world that they picked a logo that means nothing.

It's classic design-by-commitie. er... I'm sorry I meant "open development process"

Yuk

[Space cowboy]

Blandness incarnate. Sorry guys/gals, I'm sure everyone put a lot of effort into it, and you'll never please all the people all the time, but it looks like a political-party logo to me, or possibly a mega-conglomerate corporate logo.

I guess if, as a brand, you're all trying to move up-market - say, to distinguish yourselves from those upstart linux rabble [grin], then it'll work just fine. In my case, my eyes would automatically shift to [next topic], but then I'm not a corporate clone, so I guess it's doing its job.

Just to be non-PC for a second, some people have far too much time on their hands - the old image was cute, easily recognised, and daemons (note the 'a') have a long and distinguished history in Unix. My Oxford english dictionary defines 'daemon' as:

• An inner or attendant spirit; a genius (the daemon of creativity)
  
• A supernatural being in ancient greece
  

... which is a *little* different to how it defines 'demon' (lots of definitions - basically really nasty thing you don't want to meet in a dark alley. Or anywhere.) Interestingly, the online dictionaries tend to blur the meaning a bit more...

I take the point in the requirements about it being complex - hard to render at low resolutions etc, but to reject the whole idea of a cute daemon just because some people can't handle that there is no god (hey, I said I was going to be non-PC, you knew it was coming :-) seems to be cutting off your nose to spite your face...

Simon.

Re:Yuk

[Slack3r78]

Meh, I can't say I agree with you at all. Personally, I have a strong sense of cynicism about the world and the power of big business, but I refuse to see "corporate" as a dirty word as many Slashdotters do.

I also see a distinction between "corporate" and "professional," myself. While corporate generally implies professional, professional does not necessarily mean corporate. It's entirely possible to have a professional looking logo while retaining a free thinking attitude.

The whole point of this logo is that it *doesn't* look like some kid sketched it in the margin of his notes during class. It doesn't look like the programmer took 5 minutes away from hacking source to apply his minimal artistic ability to throwing together a logo just because he needed one. It can be the difference between someone feeling comfortable enough to give your project a try or ignoring it. Your logo represents your project, and if it looks like it was slapped together in 5 minutes, people are going to assume that a simliar amount of effort was put into the code, rightfully so or not.

*Professional* logos look the way they do not because the thing they represent is cold and souless, but because a well designed logo should be easy to reproduce, scale, xerox all day long and remain recognizable. If it's simple, it's easier for people to recognize, which makes it easier to remember whatever it represents. If this offends your hacker sensibillities, I'm sorry. To me this is just a good example of why most hackers are poor graphic and UI designers.

I don't like this logo, here is why

[cjmckenzie]

It has been coming for a while now - the end of the anarchy - the end of the tightly knit communities of hackers with criminal records. Like the commercialization of 60's leftism through a lucrative popular culture, the free software movement is starting to lose its roots. The flag is too polished. It's too professional. It basically makes me think that I am looking at evilcorp.com. This is not what free software is supposed to be about - it's supposed to be about things like EFF, stallman, nogifs, sokol, etc - not about appealing to corporate monery mongering beauracrats. It's perfectly fine with me if it stays fringe - in fact, the downfall of freebsd is its mainstream-ness . . .

Re:I don't like this logo, here is why

[sydb]

The point is, infiltrate and subvert. You can't do that wearing flares and round-rimmed spectacles, you need a sharp suit.

A lot of the hippies from the 60s became the rich bankers, accountants and lawyers of the 80s. Fortunately, the goodness of Free Software is enshrined in the licenses.

I was going to say something rude there about BSD versus GPL but that would have been inflammatory.

Sigh.

[arcade]

Not that the logo makes a difference when it comes to the OS (which I absolutely love. NetBSD is one of my favorite OSs) - but I think the new logo sucks.

I loved the look of the old one. The BSD daemons scrambling to raise their banner. It gave me a nice feel.

Now we've got this .. flag .. and nothing more. It doesn't tell me anything. It's got no feelings, no 'struggle', no cooperation .. and no _daemons_.

But sure.. it's clean looking .. but .. I really don't care about that.

Bad choice, imho.

Congrats to the winner.

[Anthony Boyd]

I'm bummed that they didn't pick one of mine. But at least the flag has a creative idea behind it -- namely, keeping the tradition of the original logo alive a little bit.

Oh well. If any developers would like to claim those logos I made, I have SVG (and EPS, I think) versions lying around. I can send them on, possibly with a project name added in. There is a link at the bottom of my logo page that reads, "contact the webmaster." Use that if you're interested.

Re:Congrats to the winner.

[macshit]

I strongly agree -- the flag is boring and un-memorable. It feels generic.

Your (Anthony Boyd) suggested logos are much better; they have the requisite simplicity (they're even simpler than the flag), but are far more striking, and for a logo "striking" is a very good thing. The first two retain the daemon image people like and associate with *BSD, without being too overt about it (keep the fundies at bay). They also simply have a panache that is completely lacking from the flag logo.

I don't know WTF happened with the official selection process, but in these situations it often comes down to picking the choice everybody hates the least -- and nobody actually likes -- followed by a round of rah-rahing among supporters with everybody trying to convince themselves how much they like the new choice, while hiding their disappointment.

Not very inspiring guys. Whatever happened to the image of NetBSD as the branch of *BSD that doesn't compromise its ideals?

good logo, missing key history

[davidwr]

On its own, it's a good logo. Simple, spot-color, has name, has a key element (the flag).

However, by dropping the devil, it obscures its historical relation to other BSDs. This is A Bad Thing.

A small devil silloette somewhere in the logo would've eliminated this problem.

Some /.'ers have complained about the lack of "team" in the logo. The very presence of a pennant or flag suggests a team effort, at least in my eyes.

Re:Ugh

[Anonymous Coward]

Erhm, do you realise that it was beastie that was removed because some people (*cough*christians*cough*) could feel offended? (read: those morons cannot tell a daemon from a demon).

--
HawkinsOS, kicking Smorgreff in the ass since 2004.

Re:better logo, yes

[MetalliQaZ]

"He was basically forced out because of the huge egos in the NetBSD core team"

Ridiculous! Who could have a bigger ego than Theo??

More links

[wikinerd]

Some more links:

• NerdyPC Report
• BSDnews.com Report
• NetBSD Homepage
• PNG image of the new logo
• JPEG image of the old logo
• List of all NetBSD logos

fyi

[Anonymous Coward]

punctuation goes inside quotes.

Re:fyi

[lav-chan]

In American English, for some retarded reason, that is not always the case. Commas and full stops ALWAYS go inside the quotes, whether they were part of the quoted material or not. With other punctuation marks, they go outside the quotes unless they were actually part of the source material. (e.g., if your quote is at the end of the sentence, you would put the period before the quotation mark, but if you were shouting and the person you quoted was not, your exclamation mark would go outside.)

It's increasingly popular to ignore this rule, though, especially in technical situations (like computer manuals). But... in schools, they still teach it stops and commas inside. :/

Re:fyi

[SparklingClearWit]

"Traditionally," said the teacher, "puncuation DOES go inside the quotes!"

"That isn't always the case in modern dialogue", she continued, "as sometimes delineating technical data without puncuation is desirable."

"Lastly," she breathed, "the 'old way' does seem to be more pleasant aesthetically..."

Re:Not bad

[sydb]

A little plain?? Logos are supposed to be plain. Take a moment and look at some memorable logos. They're generally very, very, simple. This makes them easy to associate with the product. It helps build the brand.

If only more Free Software projects would follow the lead of NetBSD. There are a lot of decent logos out there too but by and large Free Software logos constitute strong evidence that Graphic Design is indeed a valuable skill. Not as valuable as coding, but still valuable.

Specifically, it's not about technical prowess in using your favourite graphics program, it's about being able to come up with strong ideas and express them strikingly, visually.

Not that I'm any good at it...

First Impressions...

[Dogtanian]

Whilst it's good that the NetBSD people have recognised the need for a proper logo, my impressions are...

It looks slightly dated, like something from the late 80s/early 90s when corporate types were going for 'flowing' logos with gentle curves. The typeface and colours also contribute to this impression.

It's also fairly boring. If they decide to have a mascot as well, this won't such a problem though; logo for corporate stuff, mascot for the fans and developers.

In fact, I wish someone would design a proper (generic) Linux logo. Specifically, one that incorporates the word 'Linux' and could be used without fear of looking unprofessional. Tux seems to have become logo (as well as mascot) by default, but is not really suitable for more serious use.

Of course, Tux would remain as the mascot (although personally disliking Tux, I appreciate that I'm probably in the minority). 'Serious' literature would use the Linux logo, everyone else could use either- or both- as they pleased.

Re:The reason for poor logo design...

[wikinerd]

The logo was designed by Grant Bissett, an Australian designer.

Much more professional logo

[Infonaut]

If you're trying to get people interested in your product, the first rule is don't offend people. Like it or not, there are folks out there who don't understand the difference between daemon and demon. If you're the tech guy trying to show management that OpenBSD is worth using, the new logo is going to be much more reassuring than the old one, particularly if you happen to be operating in the Bible Belt. You may laugh, but it's true.

This is about marketing - pure and simple. The people behind NetBSD have every right to make the OS more accessible to as wide a range of users as possible, and part of doing that involves making it look more professional and less like something thrown together by a bunch of gamers in their parents' basement.

The new logo is clean, elegant, shows motion, uses bold colors, and is readily distinguishable from any other OS-related logo. Having a professional logo doesn't make you evil, and it doesn't mean you've sold out. But for better or worse it does mean that people (and not just management types) will tend to take you more seriously.

Re:The contest,months of waiting...for a RED FLAG?

[D4C5CE]

Seems to me they wanted to be so neutral, so inoffensive to everyone in the entire world that they picked a logo that means nothing.

And then while they might insist this is "just orange", what they did pick looks awfully similar to a red flag, raising the specter of all the atrocities that have been committed in its name. BTW Mozilla ditched the red star for this very reason. Neutral? Inoffensive? How "good" intentions often go terribly wrong (if the ones you name ever really were more than epitomes of "political correctness")... And moreover, this one's already taken.

Significance

[base_chakra]

Note to the judges, If the text in your logo needs to be readable to identify your product, it's not a good logo.

That is not the case. By your definition, no text-only logo could ever be "good". The thing to understand here is that in graphic design, text functions simultaneously as a means of encoding a verbal message and as a formal graphic in its own right. The letterforms or typefaces are significant, the configuration is significant, the colors are significant, and all of those things culminate in a recognizable pattern. Don't view the word and the image as mutually exclusive concepts when looking at the logo (or in general, for that matter). There are more aspects to reaction than the cognitive.

Anyone who knows NetBSD's heritage knows the significance of the flag. The old image has been distilled into something iconic, but by the reactions it seems that many slashdotters have again demonstrated that unfortunate tendency to hastily judge based on instantaneous first reaction. Contrary to some of the criticisms voiced today, this logo does mean something.

assumptions the mother of all evil!

[ASAPnetworks]

I honestly believe that anyone remotely interested in downloading the NetBSD logo's has the computer know-how to do to so. I don't think the 9 or so various README's on HOW-TO download images off the web! and suggested html tags are absolutely necessary. it's almost insulting. give us more credit then that!

The new logo is cool

[ulib]

Clean, simple, and tasteful.
Also notice that the flag is the surviving element from the old logo - representing the strain to "conquer" new platforms :)
Choosing a logo with these qualities could be *much* harder than it seems... It's definitely a good pick.

PHB was watered-down devil also

[billstewart]

Gak. Don't you k1dd13z remember your Dilbert history? The Pointy-Haired Boss was originally a devil also, but got watered down. (And that's not even counting his cousin Phil from Heck, the Prince of Inadequate Light, carrier of a big pitch-spoon...) In the PHB's case, that was probably a distinct improvement, but here it's just lame corporate blandness.

Disclaimer: I work for a different Phone Company than the one Scott Adams worked for back when Dilbert was mostly a Phone Company thing.

The whole "cute animal" thing has got to go

[carcosa30]

When I see cute cartoon Tuxes and BSD devils, whether they're doing their imitation of the Iwo Jima flaglifting or not, I think "my god, and we're trying to get onto the corporate desktop here."

I've actually had an experience where I was recommending Linux in a corporate environment, and someone said "Is that the one with the cartoon penguin? How can we take that seriously?"

And it's no joke. You have to remember, appearance is everything to those people. Appearance matters more than reality. And if you have a cartoon demon as your "mascot--" or Eddie from the Iron Maiden albums, or WHATEVER-- nobody but hackers are going to take the thing seriously.

Re:The whole "cute animal" thing has got to go

[fracex]

Because Windows XP is SO professional with its Luna interface.

Re:The whole "cute animal" thing has got to go

[ink]

Yeah, stupid Walmart and their cute little smiley guy, or the AOL running man, what a DUMB idea, and that whole Jack-In-The-Box and M&M's, Little Caesar's, Aflac, Coca-Cola Bears... not professional, like a duotone flag.

FreeBSD, are you listening?

[caulfield]

Time for FreeBSD to do the same. FreeBSD needs something other than a 20-year-old drawing of a devil to appeal to the masses, right?

Re:FreeBSD, are you listening?

[setagllib]

Hardly. FreeBSD is the only BSD, now, that has stuck to its original logos, at least in content.

"Corporate" was the first word that hit me when I saw the new NetBSD logo, and judging by this thread I'm not the only one that thinks this way. I hated it for the first few minutes (unfamiliarity more than anything - I'd more hate some glossy kitsch like Gentoo's logo, which, to anyone who didn't know Gentoo, could just as well be a breakfast cereal logo) but now I've grown a liking to it. It constitutes my MSN 'display pic' (Microsoft = long names for simple things, just so people don't have to remember new words like 'avatar') and still is getting appreciated.

Simple is good, but I still think they dropped too much of their proud BSD culture when they 'distilled' the original (I say 'they' because it is now 'their' intellectual property, at least in as much as they chose it over other images which were probably better anyway).

I mean, OpenBSD dropped the BSD Daemon in favor of an icon largely relevant to their cause (for those that don't know, blowfish is a symmetric encryption algorithm, a darn good one at that), and that's fair enough - it's flexible and 'fun'. NetBSD's is dry now, completely unlike the dated but awesome old logo, which had relevance to their cause and the old BSD culture. The new one has some very loose relevance, at least if people recognize the flag, but where's the BSD in it? (not counting the NetBSD text)

We'll note that BSD is still generalised on Slashdot with the classic daemon, even though it now only applies to FreeBSD and (if they keep the older icons, at least) NetBSD.

DragonFly has a good icon, IMHO. It is colourful, which reduces its use on monochrome media and all, and I can't for the life of me remember the whole thing all at once - but it is instantly recognizable as 'dragonfly' even if you've never heard of the project, it's simple and professional enough to appeal to business, while still being interesting enough to appeal to geeks. 'Course I don't run DragonFly since it still has too much of FreeBSD's brokeness (remove kbdcontrol and moused necessity, then I'll go back) to be made up for by the amazing technical merit, most of which NetBSD offers anyway without any of the brokeness - plus it runs as well on my x86s as my Indy :)

Actually, I like it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure, it's el-bland-o. That's the whole point. It's a subversive, sneaky way to get our favorite daemon team past the PHBs and into the corporate centres.

It's a DISGUISE, people. The mascot has not changed. The software has not changed. It's just gone stealth, dived below the loony-religious radar.

The new logo is funny because it's so deliberately bland that PHBs won't remember what it means in a weeks' time. It's the semantic relative of '404' or a little green light - means nothing to the beancounters, but speaks volumes to those in the know.

As an art guy,

[MQBS]

I have to say that I like the logo. It meets my one requirement for a good logo, and in spades:

A good logo can be recognizably spraypainted with one template.

In other words, the logo is simple enough that it doesn't require any serious work to put it on things, it can be read from close up or afar, its not overly complicated and it looks unique. And this logo fits that requirement quite nicely.

I also like the placement of the flag, the diag it makes with the text really gives the logo some oomph.