Thoughts on NetBSD's New Logo

In other BSD news, NetBSD announced their new logo, pictured at left. Slashdot discussed the new logo, with the consensus being it is "uninspired," "corporate," and not "fun." I am not surprised that a tech crowd would think this way. One post broke from this trend by saying:

"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."

I agree with this. I also found it fairly juvenile that Slashdot's moderators rated a complaint about the NetBSD daemons as being "funny." I get plenty of odd looks by airport security when I show them my laptop covered with FreeBSD daemon sticks.

Most importantly, the old NetBSD "logo" doesn't qualify as a logo at all. It's a piece of computer-inspired art that doesn't meet the conditions necessary for a logo. To get an idea of what a good logo looks like, visit GoodLogo.com. Look at their Top 250 Logos as rated by visitors page for ideas of good logos.

All of these logos are simple, clean, and portable across various "platforms" -- T-shirts, mugs, stickers, etc. This sounds like NetBSD, doesn't it? I bet you could also name most or all of the organizations they depict, although the Sun logo is the only one to contain the designated company name.

I would like to see a real logo for FreeBSD as well, preferably one without a daemon. I believe in separation between a logo and a mascot. The FreeBSD mascot is "Beastie," a "daemon." The OpenBSD mascot is the puffer fish. Similarly, Tux the penguin is the Linux mascot, and not its "logo." All three operating systems would do well to follow NetBSD's lead. Maybe DragonFly BSD is ahead of the game?