THE FREEDOS MASCOT

(c) 2002 Jim Hall.
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Mascots have great jobs.  They pretty much just sit there, look cute,
and do nothing.  Maybe that's why Tux the penguin (Linux) has a fat
butt.  The BSD Daemon stands on his feet all day, so I expect those
sneakers are more comfortable for him.  Even the baby gnu of the Free
Software Foundation is more than a little chubby.

<img src="http://www.isc.tamu.edu/~lewing/linux/">
<img src="http://www.mckusick.com/beastie/gif/bsd4_3.gif">
<img src="http://www.fsf.org/graphics/baby-gnu.jpg">

For the longest time, the FreeDOS Project did not have an official
mascot.  Some might say that we still don't have an _official_ one.
In 2000, RayeR created a "blue orb guy" that had the FreeDOS logo
printed on his tummy.  Is the "blue guy" a mascot for FreeDOS?

<img src="http://www.freedos.org/freedos/images/jpg/fd_W95waste.jpg">

RayeR said he wanted to create a cool graphic about FreeDOS, showing
how you can put FreeDOS and Linux together, and have available as open
source all that you really would get from closed-source projects like
Microsoft Windows.  Linux had an easily-recognizable mascot: the
penguin.  But he wanted to show FreeDOS, too.  But how could he
represent FreeDOS?  In response, RayeR created the "blue guy" and put
the FreeDOS logo on him.  They are both seated at a table, having a
soft drink.  Maybe they should have been sharing a beer, but kids can
use this software.

I stay away from suggesting any kind of mascot, and generally avoided
all discussion of mascots.  People get attached to them for illogical
reasons.  Once you develop a fondness for an image of a pink fluffy
poodle as a mascot, for example, people can become defensive about it.
I would pick something stupid, anyway, like a kitten ("Too small!") or
something arctic and blubbery ("Not aggressive enough!").  Maybe a
seal, but the SEAL System (a graphical user interface project for
FreeDOS) already uses the seal as their mascot.

<a href="http://sealsystem.sourceforge.net/">sealsystem</a>

Personally, I've always wanted to adopt a cuddly lemur as the FreeDOS
mascot.  We might have chosen a rat, but if you cuddle a rat you'll
never play the guitar again.

The fish mascot first became popular as an underground movement.  In
September, 2000, Mike Green submitted a new FreeDOS logo that
introduced a fish in the design.  In August, 2001, Chris Hodapp
submitted a similar fish concept, and more followed by other artists.
Suddenly, a fish was the thing to have on a FreeDOS logo.

<img src="http://www.freedos.org/freedos/images/png/mg_logo.png">
<img src="http://www.freedos.org/freedos/images/jpg/hodapp.jpg">

The breakthrough came when Bas Snabilie was doodling around a bit for
a new FreeDOS logo, when he came back to the fish concept.  But the
new fish had "googly" eyes, and was really cute.  Bas had finally
stumbled upon the attribute every great mascot needs: it must look
good on a t-shirt!

<img src="http://www.freedos.org/freedos/images/jpg/freedosfish.jpg">
<a href="http://www.cafepress.com/freedos">cafepress</a>

So, now the FreeDOS Project has a mascot.  That was easy!  But I dread
the next step: What will we name the FreeDOS fish?

-jh