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FreeBSD Announces Contest To Replace Daemon Logo
An anonymous reader submits "The FreeBSD core team has announced a public competition to design a new logo to replace the current BSD daemon logo. The new logo will be used on the FreeBSD website, software media labels, printed media, hardware equipment, and more. The winner of the contest will receive $500." It's too early for an April Fool's Joke; according to the contest page, "this daemon character seems cute from somebody's point of view,
but somebody may think which does not suit for the professional
products to indicate that are using the FreeBSD inside."
How about the little red devil jabbing his pitchfork into a patent lawyer's behind?
You are in error. No-one is screaming. Thank you for your cooperation.
The religious issue I cannot believe actually warrents changing the logo and I see nothing particularly unprofessional about the daemon.
I'm sick of following my dreams - I'm just going to ask them where they're going and hook up with them later.
a Tombstone.
BSD was dying in '98, it's gotta be dead by now, right? =)
occultae nullus est respectus musicae - originally a Greek proverb
I've already submitted my entry. I've got my fingers crossed!
- tristan
It's OK for football teams, canned ham spread, and vacuum cleaners, but not for an operating system?
You can't talk about Wikipedia's flaws on Wikipedia
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// BSD \
|| Free |
|| At |
|| Last |
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Practically, I can see where the horned devil might make certain religious people uncomfortable.
But if you're going down that road, then you might as well steer clear of offending other religions world-wide. That's right, no pigs, camels, or graven image idols, etc.
Consider how many Jews and Muslims have avoided learning Perl because of the offensive beast on the cover of the O'Reilly book!
"Provided by the management for your protection."
The logo will go in concert with beastie but will also be seperate. This helps with official letterhead and small "powered by freebsd" logos where beastie doesn't show up very well. Beastie is still the mascot and will be displayed on the web site and t-shirt...
I nominate Jesus. Not only would this show the world that FreeBSD has turned around from its evil, dying state, but also it will represent that, having died between 1998 and today, it is born again.
Linda Branagan is an expert on daemons. She has a T-shirt that sports the daemon in tennis shoes that appears on the cover of the 4.3BSD manuals and The Design and Implementation of the 4.3BSD UNIX Operating System by S. Leffler, M. McKusick, M. Karels, J. Quarterman, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Reading, MA 1989. She tells the following story about wearing the 4.3BSD daemon T-shirt:
Last week I walked into a local "home style cookin" restaurant/watering hole" in Texas to pick up a take-out order. I spoke briefly to the waitress behind the counter, who told me my order would be done in a few minutes.
So, while I was busy gazing at the farm implements hanging on the walls, I was approached by two "natives." These guys might just be the original Texas rednecks.
"Pardon us, ma'am. Mind if we ask you a question?"
Well, people keep telling me that Texans are real friendly, so I nodded.
"Are you a Satanist?"
Well, at least they didn't ask me if I liked to party.
"Uh, no, I can't say that I am."
"Gee, ma´am. Are you sure about that?" they asked.
I put on my biggest, brightest Dallas Cowboys cheerleader smile and said, "No, I´m positive. The closest I´ve ever come to Satanism is watching Geraldo."
"Hmmm. Interesting. See, we was just wondering why it is you have the lord of darkness on your chest there."
I was this close to slapping one of them and causing a scene--then I stopped and noticed the shirt I happened to be wearing that day. Sure enough, it had a picture of a small, devilish-looking creature that has for some time now been associated with a certain operating system. In this particular representation, the creature was wearing sneakers.
They continued: "See, ma´am, we don´t exactly appreciate it when people show off pictures of the devil. Especially when he´s lookin´ so friendly."
These idiots sounded terrifyingly serious.
Me: "Oh, well, see, this isn´t really the devil, it´s just, well, it´s sort of a mascot."
Native: "And what kind of football team has the devil as a mascot?"
Me: "Oh, it´s not a team. It´s an operating--uh, a kind of computer."
I figured that an ATM machine was about as much technology as these guys could handle, and I knew that if I so much as uttered the word "UNIX" I would only make things worse.
Native: "Where does this satanical computer come from?"
Me: "California. And there´s nothing satanical about it really."
Somewhere along the line here, the waitress noticed my predicament--but these guys probably outweighed her by 600 pounds, so all she did was look at me sympathetically and run off into the kitchen.
Native: "ma´am, I think you´re lying. And we´d appreciate it if you´d leave the premises now."
Fortunately, the waitress returned that very instant with my order, and they agreed that it would be okay for me to actually pay for my food before I left. While I was at the cash register, they amused themselves by talking to each other.
Native #1: "Do you think the police know about these devil computers?"
Native #2: "If they come from California, then the FBI oughta know about ´em."
They escorted me to the door. I tried one last time:
"You´re really blowing this all out of proportion. A lot of people use this `kind of computers." Universities, researchers, businesses. They´re actually very useful."
Big, big, big mistake. I should have guessed at what came next.
Native: "Does the government use these devil computers?"
Me: "Yes."
Another big boo-boo.
Native: "And does the government pay for ´em? With our tax dollars?"
I decided that it was time to jump ship.
Me: "No. Nope. Not at all. Your tax dollars never entered the picture at all. I promise. No sir, not a penny. Our good Christian congressmen would never let something like that happen. Nope. Never. Bye."
Time for my medication...
Stick Men
This is truly sad. I can just imagine the new logo being along the same lines as the crap parodied by eNormicom.
I have an idea for another contest. Design a sentence for the FreeBSD logo contest page that is comprehensible.
Our intelligent designer has never created an animal that we couldn't improve by strapping a bomb to it.
We don't hear much about the PC of the right, but this is it. PC has long been associated with idiotic bending-over-backwards to not offend causes that the left likes (minorities, disabled, etc). This seems a prime example of an organization bending to the whims of the right.
It seems just like Fox changing the name "Best damn superbowl roadshow" to "Best darn superbowl roadshow"
AccountKiller
Nobody is suggesting that Beastie should cease to be the FreeBSD mascot; this is about selecting a new logo.
The reasons for this include not just that some people consider the daemon to be offensive, but also legal issues: The daemon image is owned by Kirk McKusick and right now if companies want to use the image, they need to get permission from him. A "powered by FreeBSD" logo which is actually free for everybody to use would make things much easier.
Tarsnap: Online backups for the truly paranoid
Is a stylized window frame logo any better? How about an apple with a chunk missing? Quit trying to make an objection to a devil sound like it is rational. Even if you aren't actually offended and disturbed, you ought to be ashamed for catering to the morons and idiots who are.
perl -e 'print $i=pack(c5, (41*2), sqrt(7056), (unpack(c,H)-2), oct(115), 10)'