Gallery of the Lamest Technology Mascots Ever

Wired has a gallery of their Lamest Technology Mascots which features some trollish links including Tux and a certain adorable devil. Also featured is the old Java mascot Duke which I always liked, and of course Clippy who these days pretty much exists only in cheesy Top X lists.

Comments

Gallery: Most Well-Known Technology Mascots Ever

[brunascle]

the only mascot i can think of that isnt on this list is Konqi.

and tux is not lame. them's fightin words.

Futaba channel

[Turn-X Alphonse]

Finally a use for my knowledge of useless Japanese image boards!

Number 10 is the OS-Tans which spawned from 2ch (and Futaba, the image board connected to the forms known as 2channel, or 2ch for short). Each edition of windows has a linked character (I haven't seen Vista though) which links to the OS's "quirks". For example XP is a very smart girl who takes care of the rest (a well rounded OS basicly) where as ME is a complete idiot known for weilding leaks and doing the dumbest things she can. The OS-tans became so popular (even to the point of a magazine in Japan stealing their designs and using them without the original authors permission and hence being boycotted by many 2ch users) that other software started to get their own characters.

These range from Norton (who is a perverted old doctor) to the Mac girl (who likes to blow things up). As time goes by these girls all seem to remain popular and have become a solid part of the Japanese image board culture. It's very rarely to check the Futaba art boards (Oekaki and self made) without seeing at least once OS-tan pop up some where.

The author doesn't seem to have much of a clue about the girls and their characters, it's just shooting in the dark at "mascots" when the original author has suggested no such thing. Infact the original character designs are pretty much as open source as you can be with character designs, you can do what you like with them as long as you don't make a profit and don't try to claim you made them/not give credit to the mass community).

People looking for the OS-tans can try Futaba at http://www.2chan.net/ , you are most likely to see them on the random boards, the main 2 of which are on the third row 2 down ( and :P ). Be warned it is NOT work safe and you can see ANYTHING (from dead babies to hentai and a mix of both together). Unless you have a .jp IP or are using a proxy you may not post on the site, this is because when people have been given access people have abused it (4chan /b/ users spam the board with racism and such if they find a proxy), so you can just view not take part to those outside Japan.

Re:Tux rocks

[Lehk228]

that "goat-thing" is a gnu, also known as a wildebeest

Re:Tux rocks

[0100010001010011]

"When the dogcow was removed from the print dialog in Mac OS X, many people requested that Apple bring it back. The dogcow image had virtually reached cult status. It is an Apple Worldwide Developer Tech Support group mascot. Microsoft used their own variant of the dogcow in their PowerPoint presentation software, with a bell, and a fatter body."

Indeed.

Re:Tux rocks

[elrous0]

A penguin is a lot more recognized than a gnu. Most people in the world have seen penguins in their lives (they're at almost every zoo now). And they've been featured in COUNTLESS documentaries, comic strips, cartoons, and in other pop culture venues.

When is the last time you saw a documentary about gnu's, or saw a gnu exhibit at a zoo, or saw a cartoon about a gnu? Most people in the world have no fucking clue what a gnu even is.

In other words: If you make a red panda your company mascot, don't complain when people call it a raccoon.

Re:Tux rocks

[Adhemar]

The original Tux sucks because it looks fat, bored, lazy

This is what Linus said on that subject back in May 1996:

Now, with penguins, (cuddly such), "contented" means it has either just gotten laid, or it's stuffed on herring. Take it from me, I'm an expert on penguins, those are really the only two options.

Now, working on that angle, we don't really want to be associated with a randy penguin (well, we do, but it's not politic, so we won't), so we should be looking at the "stuffed to its brim with herring" angle here.

So when you think "penguin", you should be imagining a slighly overweight penguin (*), sitting down after having gorged itself, and having just burped. It's sitting there with a beatific smile - the world is a good place to be when you have just eaten a few gallons of raw fish and you can feel another "burp" coming.

(*) Not FAT, but you should be able to see that it's sitting down because it's really too stuffed to stand up. Think "bean bag" here.

Now, if you have problems associating yourself with something that gets off by eating raw fish, think "chocolate" or something, but you get the idea.

Ok, so we should be thinking of a lovable, cuddly, stuffed penguin sitting down after having gorged itself on herring.

And on another occasion a month later:

Some people have told me they don't think a fat penguin really embodies the grace of Linux, which just tells me they have never seen a angry penguin charging at them in excess of 100mph. They'd be a lot more careful about what they say if they had.