Superstitious users and the FreeBSD logo

[David Duchscher]

On Nov 30, 2011, at 4:16 AM, Tom Limoncelli wrote:

> This is yet another reason why it was brilliant for Linux to have a
> Penguin as their logo.  Up until then all Unix imagery was
> counter-productive to wide adoption: It was mostly wizards (a reminder
> that Unix is difficult to use and only understood by few) or devils
> (which is just plain confusing to the 99.99% of the planet that hasn't
> taken Operating Systems 101 in college).
> 
> This is not a new thing.  This story is probably older than a lot of
> people on this mailing list:
> http://monster-island.org/tinashumor/humor/daemon.html
> 
> (and I heard Laura tell the story once in person)
> 
> Tom
> P.S. Speaking of being old.... next week is the 25th Usenix LISA
> conference.  Who's coming to Boston?  Will there be a BSD BoF?

As one that has been stopped in a Lowes by a man in an electric wheelchair asking if I worshiped the devil do to the FreeBSD shirt I was wearing, pull it.  The logo maps to many religious people as being demonic.  Saying that, the newer higher tech logo does not seem to bring out the same association.

If you do wish to evangelize FreeBSD in this case, I second the suggestion of just using the image with the word FreeBSD in it.  Maybe somebody can work up some images with the newer logo on it and one or two with just the text to give people a little more flexibility for these types of situations.

--
DaveD