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Graphics Software

Linux on a Magazine Cover? 230

Posted by Cliff from the could-this-be-more-exposure? dept.
romney wrote in to give us the scoop on an interesting opportunity: "I've been asked to design a cover for a high-end graphics magazine that shows Linux. I'm looking for suggestions on how you would graphically illustrate the ideas that are the basis for Linux. I really want the reader to get a visual understanding of Linux just by looking at the cover. What would you do? " Hint: It needs a penguin.
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Linux on a Magazine Cover? More

Linux on a Magazine Cover?

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  • what about this (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Thousands of nerdy looking people praying and
    dancing around a golden pinguin????

    perhaps a bit zynical, but not that far off
    the truth....

  • Yikes! Art about operating systems... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    To paraphrase the late great Frank Zappa, painting about operating systems is like dancing about architecture. (Although a relative of mine did choreograph and perform a dance called "If You Can Mix Cement, You Can Make A Souffle"...)

    I'd suggest reading Neal Stephenson's "In the Beginning Was the Command Line" [cryptonomicon.com] for some ideas - I like his idea of the anarchic crowd in tents, RVs, Quonset huts, etc., all gathered to build tanks.

  • Combine "real-life" and digital (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    How about an "obvious artist type" holding a laptop like a paint palette, standing in front of a standard canvas on a rack (that thingie that holds a painting in progress - grin).

    The computer screen has X running, with the GIMP logo up... He is dipping his paintbrush into the colors on the screen, implying use of GIMP to paint the "real-life" painting.

    Mark Edwards [mailto]
    Proof of Sanity Forged Upon Request

  • You want it too look sweet? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Here is the idea. Have the penguin holding up the world like Atlas but have the entire image composed of code. Instead of filling the penguin with shades of color the penguin and the world will be shaped from lines of code. Kinda of like ascii art but shade and add colors to the letters.

    Then, behind this scene/in the background you can put Gimp/KDE/Redhat/Debian/Caldera/etc logos that are slightly transparent/faded.

    This will look sweet if done right.

  • Re:Cover (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I am dismayed to see that even to this day women are treated in such a disrepectful way. It is sad and discouraging that images such as these sets back years of progress in equality. As an outraged citizen, I would like to know where such a vile picture can be seen on the web, so that I may tape it on my computer to show the guys at the office an example of bigotry. I am keenly interested if it flagrantly displays a taut, tanned body and sexy, frilly exotic lingerie, especially in conjunction with hormone-pounding high-tech machinery. All in the name of righteous indigination, you understand. At any rate, perhaps someone may scan in this disreputable picture so we guys in the server room may educate ourselves and ponder on the negative effects of balantant stereotypes. In unspeakable rage- Derrick

  • rendered tux (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    sectioned partial render of Tux, i.e. 1 section wireframe, 1 section flatshade polys, 1 section gouraud shaded and blended polys (this section should be very high-poly, so as to look more polished than the previous areas; the top should look distinctly low-poly), then one section colored shaded, then one section textured. Side objects can include multiple users, with source on their monitors, and all connected to projectors, which are projecting the Tux image. This symbolizes many users are coming together to create Tux (and by analogy, Linux). Hope this helps, Kevin M. Lowe klowe1@purdue.edu
  • How about Tux painting? Or even Tux painging over windows? :-)

    I can just see it, Tux with a goatee, a french cap, standing before a canvas with an easel holding a paintbrush and a pallette. If anyone makes such a drawing send me a copy for AboutLinux.com...
  • With: a picture of Tux, shown in the Gimp (2 birds with one stone), with Netscape & WordPerfect windows open, and one or two xterms (possibly with vi and/or emacs open in them).

    That way, (almost) everybody's happy...you've shown that Linux *does* have a desktop (and a command line), a good mix of open & commercial software, and a cute mascot :).

  • An explanation of why something is bad or wrong does not necessarily have to include FUD. FUD tends to come about when you don't have enough legitimate gripes about something.

  • "Ok, Spock, what do you think?"

    "Well, Captain, it would be logical for the artwork to depict the strengths of Linux, in a way that was clear to the reader."

    "What would you define as the strengths?"

    "The strengths are - ease-of-use, support for a wide range of systems, hot-loadable drivers, stability, speed, rapid maintenance, flexibility and control."

    "That's a lot to put on one cover picture. What would you suggest?"

    "A surreal picture, of a person replacing a clock part with something from the engine of an old car, with the caption of 'this'll be good for another fifty years."

    "Hmmmm.... That would be.... logical."

  • I think you should hook up with the guys on the Linux Image Montage Project [remotepoint.com] and see what they could come up with to help out. That way, it would be open source. :-)

  • Of course Tux is sitting outside the cage labelled Linux which has has the bars bent open.


  • I would second this and definitely emphasize the Internet somehow. In addition to the many people involved, we could not communicate as we have been able to and I don't think Linux would have grown as it has without it. This would also show that the growth of Linux has and is more of a worldwide effort.

    ----------------

    "Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." - Albert Einstein

  • Re:... (Score:1)

    by justo ( 2858 )
    it's because of bad html... no font closing tags!

    they want the browsers to be compliant to open standards, how about the authors ;)

  • ...but, if it says that (as it should) Linux is up and coming, but nowhere near as capable (graphically) as other systems, then you probably had best just go for something indicating that Tux has an artistic side. For example, Tux with a beret and a paint pallete painting something that looks suspiciously like the GIMP logo on his canvass - something to that effect. Or, you could put the MacOS logo on a pedestal, and have Tux painting a picture of it (MacOS being THE graphics OS, more or less).
  • It's all about people. Not to get wierd on you :), but I believe that Linux is about giving power to people. Linux is about rebellion and defiance, an anathema to corruption (speak not of it getting corrupted itself) and a way to perpetuate good technology, in the face of technological and economic and marketing forces working against it.

    Continuing this theme a depiction of a revolution of freedom and renaissance coming from Linux Users would represent Linux well. Grab your history books and check out all of the adventitious art. Such as the national revoltutions and wars. Linux is more than an operating system. Linux is a product of a free thinking community that knowns no limitation. Like others have said shown the community. Show their intention, passion, and vision. Stress important fundementals such as innovation, support, security, freedom and openness. These are the roots that Linux was built upon.

    ---------

  • How about a cover which shows a window from a high end graphics app (like blender, if that counts as high end). Standing next to the window is Tux holding an palette of paints, and he (/she?) is reaching into the window to draw the super-detailed cool thing which is being rendered. So Tux is doing the rendering :)

    idea version 2:
    I think it would be cool to take a real window dump from a graphics program, and leave the window borders in. Maybe even better would be to have a whole screen dump, showing a nice-looking desktop. Xfractint rendering a Mandelbrot fractal in one window, gimp in another window, editting Tux, and a large window covering parts of the others (so we know it is the important one) running blender. (or if you have access to some commercial super-cool program (like mentioned in LJ) use that). On top of the screen capture, draw a Tux standing on an xterm, and painting in the 3D window. Next to the Gimp window, another Tux (ooh, SMP :) holds a tile of raster graphics that he is about to put into the image of Tux being editted. For the 3D image being rendered/drawn by Tux, use a 3D tux, unless anyone has a better idea :)

    In response to all the suggestions to kick dirt at BG, keep in mind that this will be the cover of a high-end graphics mag. This is the domain of SGI and other Real Computer manufacturers, not Micros~1. The target audience is probably people who know what they are doing, and probably know all too well about NT.

    Tux rocks. If you don't like Tux, then draw a better logo yourself. I admit, he is a bit pudgier than I'd like to see, but I can't draw worth a damn, so I don't complain. (except for that last self contradictory sentence :)


    #define X(x,y) x##y

  • If you're catering to a U.S. audience, getting thousands of little penguins drawn by oodles of volunteers and arranging them into the statue of liberty... fine enough that from a few feet it looks like the statue, but when held in your hands all the little tiny penguins drawn by thousands of volunteers are quite visible.

    It all depends on what kind of resources are at your disposal.

    My original thought was to do the same with a visual representation of the internet, but it's a stretch of a claim, and I just couldn't think of an image which would be fitting.

  • ???

    1. MS has not got much to do with design. Hell, MS has nothing whatsoever to do with design other than torturing those of us who have to import Word into Quark or something.

    2. Adobe, while expensive, has earned it's place. PostScript is good. Photoshop is good. Illustrator is good. If anyone needs to be taken down a notch it's Quark.
  • Hey, it's about as stressful as those 'netslave' guys. It's a world of deadlines. Lots of deadlines.

    I'm not trying to say that all of us are Knuth or anything. But none of the 100-150 or so designers I know are dumb about computers - after all 90% of dtp is computer-based now, and I can't think of anyone who prefered the old way, which still pops up a bit depending on how you do your comps.

    The main thing about designers is that since computers are just a tool, a way to get what we want accomplished, people will often find some way of doing something and stick with it. I once worked in a shop where after ~15-20 years the DEC PDP-11 they had used for layout finally died. The designers there were expert PDP operators but were still learning the Mac. The PDP had worked, so why change? While I personally enjoy noodling around with computers, this is probably what you're encountering: people who don't give a crap how it works, as long as it does work and can do what they need.
  • Ho ho ho. I can guess that you're not a designer. I am, though.

    Am I ignorant? No, I don't think so. I know a crapload about how my computer works, and I use windows and linux on a pretty regular basis, though not for work.

    I, like most designers, am extremely technical. I _HAVE_ to be. Programming is mostly conceptual work - get a clear idea of what you're doing and then type a lot. But programmers can use a tty if they have to and so IMHO they have it lucky.

    I have to pay attention to my color calibration; the mess of original files that have to get into the computer or adjusted so as to work well with others (slides, transparencies, photos, recreating lost originals, screened art...); font issues up the wazoo (I've probably memorized the appearance of a few thousand different faces by now); intercompatability between my software - Quark, PageMaker, Photoshop, Illustrator, Freehand - which is not just by vendor (Illustrator and Freehand HATE each other) but also version; maintain strict version control over the various files; preserve projects that can easily sit at a few hundred megs each for years and be able to get them working later, without pickled hardware or software; and output.

    It's output that's a real killer. Changing from RGB to Lab to CYMK and Pantone colorspaces. Screening. Going over the films, by hand, with a lupe to make sure everything's perfect. Making the fscking imagesetter and RIP are working, which is easily the most annoying thing I have ever had to do - I could kill a certian imagesetter company's employees without remorse. Dealing with film processing, which is not quite as automated as I'd like. Thank god I don't have to strip or make plates though.

    On top of all of this I have to be a good designer with an excellent sense of color, design, know the ins and outs of typography (like why Adobe deserves their status) as well as traditional paste up for comps and such.

    And, because stuck up people like you tend to work as admins, I have to keep all the hardware running perfectly by myself, keep track of viruses, bugs in the many many programs we use, administer LANs and learn enough about AppleScript programming to automate what I can.

    If I'm working in a print house (presently I am not) then 90% of the business of the company goes through me. Multimillion dollar presses sit idle if I'm not on time. Fortunately we have weeded out a lot of the PHBs in print, though the web is full of 'em.

    So I end up doing three jobs: Designer, Computer Operator and Sysadmin.

    I'm thanking god for MacOS X completely because it's based on BSD. I desperately want unix underpinnings for the Mac so that it won't be crash prone (which has more to do with flakey but unique software or a lack of maintenance than it does anything else). DPS will be very sweet.

    Linux, while also attractive, simply doesn't have the kind of software I need (Gimp is not usable for print yet, and there are a lot of patents so it probably won't ever be AFAIK) or else I'd be happy to switch.

    USB of course, other than for mickey mouse crap (keyboards, mice, tablets) is useless. Serious periperhals (scanners, some printers, disks) are SCSI. Firewire's nice, especially since it's hot-swappable (the biggest attraction for me) but I won't be using it for years, I'm sure.

    So please don't go thinking that Mac users - particularly graphic designers are stupid. We're not. Having to deal with people like you, we can't be.

  • Re:moderate that post down! (Score:4)

    by cpt kangarooski ( 3773 ) on Friday November 05, 1999 @02:15PM (#1560081) Homepage
    That's absolutely true. And it's 'sir.'

    Actually it's only true if I were: 1. A programmer, which I am not (try as I might, I'm just not good at it) 2. A really damn good programmer (even rarer than #1) 3. Could access all of the proprietary information required for good graphics software (like patented color matching systems)

    The point of my post was that designers are using Macs not because we're stupid - though there are always stupid people in every profession - but because Windows and Linux systems usually either don't offer what we want or offer too little to make changing systems attractive.

    I'm not on a power trip (although design has many practical applications - like forgery ;), at least I don't think so. But I don't like it when people tell me that I and my bretheren are dumbasses for using a practical solution, especially if the person saying that is unfamiliar with what we do in the first place.

    I'll tell you this, and this is a FACT, not opinion. Gimp, and Linux in general are really not useful for graphic designers.

    Really this is less important for Linux because the underlying OS is just a thing for us. It's not important, because we're really concerned with the applications. If Linux could run my software I'd switch.

    But the Gimp... non-graphic designers always wonder why we stick to Photoshop. The reason is because the Gimp is lacking in a number of key areas. Chief among these is that it has lousy color support.

    Sure it can display RGB color. That's about the last thing I need. Lab is a very good color space and last I heard it wasn't supported. This may have changed but it's not the really critical one. CYMK is totally absent from the Gimp AFAIK, as well as support for Pantone. Nothing in this country gets printed, in color, professionally without being in either CYMK (or a subset thereof) or in Pantone or once in a jillion years Hexachrome. NOTHING. That's just how things are for little reasons like chemistry and the color spectrum.

    This means that suddenly the Gimp is only useful for people making RGB or greyscale images. Very few people deal exclusively in those colorspaces. Web designers, while only concerned with RGB or greyscale output often have to convert other people's more complicated files and so there's little reason to adopt an incomplete solution just because it's there. Would you switch from Emacs (assuming you use it) to an editor without support for capital letters? Only if you're e. e. cummings.

    Since the Gimp is not sufficiently attractive to draw people to Linux all by itself, let's look at what else Linux is lacking:

    • Fonts
      Most shops have a really large investment in typefaces. Thousands of dollars of typefaces. Typically in Mac PostScript format, which may not lend itself to conversion to something Linux can use. If not, that's bad because it's of critical importance that everyone have the same fonts (or be able to use them) for about the same reasons that it's good for people writing software to rely on standard libraries and APIs. Only more so.
    • Layout
      The only layout program I know of for Unix is Framemaker, which is commercial and no longer being updated AFAIK. Plus it's more suitable towards books than single-page design, and is heavily weighted towards typesetting. TeX is for typesetting, not layout and while I'm told LaTeX has some simple layout functions it's probably not a good replacement for Quark.
    • Illustration
      Is there a good illo program for Linux? Something like Illustrator? I don't do vector when I can avoid it so I have not looked into this much. Still a vector program is an essential part of the desktop publisher's toolkit.
    • Misc apps There are a lot of little plug-ins and single-purpose apps out there. Some are drivers for exotic hardware like scanners or imagesetter RIPs. Others are like KPT Bryce or AlienSkin. I know people who depend heavily on these kinds of things and would stand on one leg if that's what it took to get them to work. Sure they could program their own, but few designers are also programmers. You want to get non-programmers using Linux, this is what you deal with.

    All of that stuff is critical. All of it is a problem for the designer who wants to use Linux exclusively. Since designers tend to not give a crap about the OS and just want tools that work (as I mentioned, I knew one shop that had been using a customized PDP-11 for ~15 years because that's what worked - at least until it couldn't be fixed) the Mac is a really attractive option. If standard commercial apps get ported over that will be much more of an inducement than the current offerings on Linux are.

    Me, I like Linux, BeOS, Mac... but only one is good for work right now. I'm painfully aware of how old the MacOS is which is why I'm looking forwards to MacOS X (which is based on BSD). Get my stuff working on Linux and I'll use that. It's not even a matter of preference right now.

    Mostly though I'm vocal on this subject because I just don't like ignorant bozos, no matter what OS they use, telling me that I'm an idiot even though I know what's up with the state of DTP and they don't. Non-designers have no right to talk to me that way.

  • How about a robotic penguin... Something where you another party is doin surgery on tux... It would ilustrate the ability for someone to really get under the hood of linux and change things... hmmm then there is the car motif... just a random musing...

    hmmm a penguin working on his car???
  • gnu = the gnu gimp = wilbur linux = tux postgres = that elephant thing gnome = the foot kde = the dragon there must be dozens ... I think that would make good artwork; the use of mascots is something that cleanly separates the Free Software crowd. Also, the "linux movement" is more than just the linux kernel.
  • She's very cute ...

    You can see it Here [themes.org]. But the pic in the actual tarball looks better. Sorry for drooling.

  • ...to hide "LOIS" and the rabbit head in there somewhere.

  • Admittedly, Tux has been a great refinement of our view of Linux, but let's not overkill it. Some way to graphically portray people from all over the world, united by free software, seems more apt to cover Linux community

    You should have a hundred people standing together, wearing different coloured clothes, so that from a distance it looks like a picture of Tux. In other words, a crowd of people formed into the shape of a penguin.

  • I'm seeing a Tux, sitting crosslegged, a hammer+chisel in his hands, looking at Michaelangelo's (sp!?) David.
  • that cute KMFMS logo
  • *cough* I, uhh.. have copyrighted the "..." subject line on slashdot. Please discontinue your use of it at once. =)

    --
  • perhaps I've just been thinking about the Hacker's Tarot too much (some day I hope to illustrate them) but I can't help but think this is the kinda thing they're waiting for. For those not familiar I've tossed a copy on my homepage [home.com]; I don't know the original author but they're truely a classic.

    general idea design idea
    basically the power of Linux is the open nature of the code, the distributed peer review, the flexibility of the development style and the wide range of people in the community. That's the secret to Linux... the community. the many hands of the community make lite work of the otherwise daunting.


    so then... here's my idea for the cover....
    • center: an old cast iron vault stands open, it's contents - thick reams of printout - spilling out in bathed in a soft golden light. the smashed remains of various insectoid life forms litter the floor upon which the vault sits.
    • surounding it: a diverse group of people surround the vault, they all view the revealed source with avid gazes. Streams of code flow between them to form a web of thought; which swats at a still remaining flying insect that has emerged from the source of revelation.
    • bordering them: iconic representations of the various tasks performed in Linux are depicted as jigsaw puzzels, the pieces are being placed by many different hands. Some pieces come from the people; some from out of frame.
    • background: montage of various pieces of code blends together into abstraction behind details, crystalizes into focus elsewhere.
    • a lower corner: beaten up old double hung casement window, paint peeling sits in shadows. cob webs have formed clearly showing neglect and lack of use, one pane is cracked - the shards lie below. The windows is chained shut with rusty chains, locked with a large padlock. the glass has slight tints of red, blue, green and yellow - it is dirty and opaque: none of the code in the background shows through.


    some various details:
    • the printouts in the vault are source code - given sufficient resolution it could be various portions of Linux. It is also possible that it could be in mixed media: hardcopy, tape, disk, CD, an editor window...

    • the people suroundding it should be recognizable... Linus must be there, as well as Alan, Eric and other luminaries of the Linux, Gnu, OSS world; equally important are complete anonymous unknown "Jon Q. Public" types. probably can go from shoulders up or so. folks like Bill Gates and Steve Balmer must not in any way be possible interpretations of any of them. There should be a good cross of gendre, ethnic and socio faces. (especially a good scarry biker beard and dark sunglass wearing Alan, and the mild manered geek next door-ish Linus in his specs).

    • the icons should be pixelated before being sliced into jigsaw pieces...they should also be generic enough to NOT look like any specific product. (the opposite would also be an idea... but then you're bound to leave someone out....) ideas for logos as follows:
      • an envelope with an email address on it
      • that "no clouds" picture of earth wrapped around a sphere, with "HTTP://" glowing like a firebrand
      • an abacuss
      • a typewritter
      • a painter's easle
      • a terminal window
      • a file cabinet
      • some documents on a silver tray
      • a brick wall with flames on one side and a scroll on the other (or a theif on one side and a pile of gold coins on the other)
      • . . .


    • the various mascots could go with either the people or the puzle pieces. tux, the bsd daemon, the gimp, shadow man, the suse gecko, the perl camel, the gnu...

    • The hands assembling the pieces, like the people should be a mix of people; a dainty feminine hand with manacured nails next to a knuckle sandwich maker with grime under the nails and hair on the knuckles; everything in between. (a robotic arm? a prosthetic hand?)

    • the code streams between the people should be both ascii and binary (hex??)

    • an alternate background would be the source as tux [dhs.org]



    I know there are more details floating in my head... but it's been a long week and I'm tired... I'll post others tommorow if the thread's alive.
  • Tux wearing a Kevlar "FUD" Vest, avoiding shot from a "very rich geek".

    Or, Tux or Linus climbing out of a computer monitor while "someone" tries to tell you to "pay no attention to the OS behind firewall".

    Or, dipict some companies trying to hold back the flood of open source software while others ride the wave. I think I particularly like this one. I'm picturing Tux wearing a red hat, carrying a green inflatable SUSE dinosaur (if that's what it is), and throwing a Debian logo marked frisbee, riding a surf board. Supporting OSS companies could be riding the wave too.

    Ryan
  • ...for whatever else you show.
  • I agree that you need a penguin on the cover, but why not go with something other than the "generic" penguin that linux is recognized by?

    Just a thought, I'm getting tired of that same old bird over and over.
  • Perhaps the Linux Montage [remotepoint.com] would show the best aspects of Linux. Just a thought..
  • Just put a picture of Linus on the cover. That seems to be what passes for innvoative design over at Linus Journal... errrrm... Linux Journal.
  • Since you will be the designer for this I let you decide what form your design takes, but here are few things you want to keep in mind.

    First who is your audience? (who is the magazine geared towards) "High-End Graphics" could mean many things, but unless this is magazine is geared towared the people doing scientific modeling and such I'm going to assume that this magazine is geard toward "artists" that are using computers as their tools. Most of these people don't know what "Tux" is and don't care what is "under the hood". They are more concerned with how it will allow them to do thier job with less problems. I would focus on representations of work flow, efficiency, and stability. Helios is a company that makes graphic environment workflow solutions that now has a linux port. Check them out and see what they have to say about their product.

    Linux as a publishing solution on the workstation side is still in its infancy (with the exception of high density manuals and long document (read Tex), but would excel as a server solution.

    If this magazine also has a readership that is in the animation industry, mabye some representation of the clustering solutions may be a an option you want to look at.

    Do a brainstorming session with word association.
    stability=solid=stone=granite=quarry=.......
    efficency=......
    cooperation=.....

    After a little session of this you will see words that will guide you in choosing metephorical representations of what you are trying to say.

    good luck and happy designing.

  • picture (Score:1)

    by wall ( 12321 )
    How about "small world after all" theme with
    everyone holding hands, or 1000's of monkeys on
    pcs spewing code, or a zillion little stupid penguins on pcs, or (laugh) the communist manifesto with Karl Marx/Eric Raymond, etc...

    Are you creative or no? Its art, right?
    Do you really WANT art by commitee?

  • I'd be kewl to have big open windows with curtains blowing that looked out over a sea of code and a sky of www. Maybe have that as the image in a penguins eye and show only that 1/2 of it's head. I'd for sure make the penguin the background somehow. I'd go with a Zeus like end user posing at their computer as they play Q3 in the foreground. Maybe splash some Gimp, Gnome, KDE, etc around the edges of the scene.
  • A Globe labeled "The Internet" sitting on top of a pillar labeled "Linux".

    1s and 0s swirling around the surface of the globe and streams of 1s and 0s on bolts of lightning streaming from the globe to the pillar.

    LK
  • Some of them, anyway. Why not put some of Gimp's art on there? Maybe a screenshot of Linux in action too.

    Or go for some abstract look portraying openness. But if it's a graphics mag, then we need to show off Linux's eye candy.
  • Yes a penguin would be a good start. But Linux is more than penguins. Maybe a penguin with th eface of Linus and Alan and some of the other core developers hiddin in its body, or maybe use there faces to make a sort of collage that ends up looking like a penguin. Something that should show that Linux is not one person and not one country, and is made like the diversity that makes up the world.

    send flames > /dev/null

  • I picture a open fountain, gushing water
    mixed with a torrent of punctuation marks
    (heavy on the semicolons and the curly braces,
    with some bars, slashes, hypens, angle
    brackets, etc). The source is open, get it?

    If you want, you could have a penguin swimming
    in the fountain. You could also add some other
    figures, like the FreeBSD demon and so on.
    (My inclination would be to take it easy on
    the cutsey stuff, though.)

    You can change the slant by turning it from a
    fountain to a kitchen sink, or a fire hydrant.
    Drowning Bill Gates under the torrent is an
    option.

    Floating a boat in the stream is another option.
    Linus torvalds at the helm?

  • IE has a nice feature.

    I have no clue why it's not turned on by default.

    Open your Internet Options, go to Advanced and select "Browse in new process" for IE4, and "Launch browser windows as separate processes" for IE5.

    Once you do that, the browser detaches itself from the OS and you can kill it without killing anything else.

    This tip is brought to you by the site admin of PCTIPS.com [pctips.com] :-)
    --
    Leonid S. Knyshov
    Network Administrator
  • Jimi's strat was a right-handed instrument. He flipped the nut re-strung it, and played it "upside down."

    I'm being anal, aren't I?
  • How about a dark castle of Gates compared to the free meadows of Linux as the main theme?

    Above the castle, dark skies, thunderbolts etc, promoting the evil, are visible. (For ideas, see the Iron Maiden album "Killers").

    The almost only thing visible thing of the castle are the Large, Fierce Walls surrounding it, with the silhouette of Our Great Enemy (Bill) in a window of the highest tower, maybe counting lots of money. In the middle are a pair of Iron Gates, through which line after line of cloned (or at least identically looking) windowz user can be sighted. On the tower, a very torn, dark and dirty flag wawes in the wind. The flag is - of course - the Windows flag... :-)

    Behind the lines, in the celler of the castle is a small window visible, through which a torture chamber is visible. In the chamber, the silhouette of Duke (the Java symbol) hangs side by side with a penguine and a human.

    Outside of the castle, the sun is shining, a rainbow is visible in the distance, the meadows are green, butterflies are flying and everyone are happy. "Everyone" are of course some Penguins, each being an individual, most occupied with their own hobby (painting, playing an instrument (with someone selling tickets for the show), writing on a scroll, examining a chart on a computer screen, talking on a cellular phone), but some are helping each other or are involved in a discussion, or listening to a lecture.

    This is my main idea of a theme, promoting the freedom, individualism and friendship amongst Linux users, comparing it to the "slavery" and strictly business-without-afterthought-on-the-impact-of-the -individual-users-or-professionals idea of the extremely commercialized windows business.

    Of cource it will require some afterthougth on which details to ommit to be able to display the main "theme", even though more background details will make it more fun for us non-Windows fans to watch. :-)

    /Fredrik

  • Dustpuppy

    (or is that two?...)
  • Just show tux crapping on a couple of MS and Apple logo's.
  • Have ol Tux reaching out of the monitor to shake the hand of the user. I think that best describes the relationship between Linux and the user.


  • Covergirl Ideas (Score:3)

    by Kagenin ( 19124 ) on Friday November 05, 1999 @09:37AM (#1560109)
    Have a cover of the GIMP Mascot drawing a target on Adobe's Logo. Even better when Paired w/ a Gimp article. If you don't think a target is shocking enough, you could have him doing a very unclean act to it.

    Another Idea - A Tux penguin with a Rocket Launcher from Quake III: Arena. Nothing yells 'HIGH END GRAPHICS' like Quake3.

    Kagenin
  • Yeah, right. Everybdoy agrees on which editor is best of course :-)
  • Sorry for the OT post, but anyone see Fight Club and make that association?
    "Slide!"

  • Although not nessecarily what you may be looking for. Some of those magaznie readers may like it. A picture of Tux on a ladder climbing up into clouds (or something). Have a little SGI type logo in the ladder (seeing as how SGI is high end graphics and is helping linux). Then have a horde of people helping hold the ladder up. So with RedHat's, some are lizards, some are umm curly q's, I think you get the idea. Actually might as well carve some Intel, Alpha, AMD logos on the ladder too.
    Of course this might not be what you are looking for cuz it might say that Linux isn't there yet. But then again Linux isn't. Nor will it ever be. Someone will always add something to it.
    -cpd
  • I'm a vermont town of 15k people (going to bennington college) and the local news shop carries Linux MAgazine (though no linux journal in site) So odd.

    Still looking forward to maximumlinux. http://www.maximumlinux.com/
  • I've been seeing this animated groovin' pengiun wearing sunglasses. It's raytraced. Make it a bunch bigger and then put a special paper cover on the 'zine that has that ridged plastic animation effect like the toys that come in cracker-jacks. So you can tile the cover from side to side and watch the penguin groove. Cool and retro.

  • I'll add my support the reply above. The GIMP is a far, far cry from being anywhere near as good as Photoshop.

    Yes, the GIMP is neat and free. Script-fu is brilliant. But if you think the GIMP's interface is better than Photoshop's you've probably only seen Photoshop on Windows. The fault there is Windows not Photoshop. On a Mac, Photoshop is still far superior to anything else -- especially the GIMP.

    I like the GIMP and use it at home. However, a professional graphic artist -- who needs to do pre-press, who needs complementary vector graphics tools, who needs to work efficiently and intuitively -- would never get by with the GIMP/Linux.

  • Remember, any decent page layout involves a maximum of info-stimulation. Perhaps Tux could be surfing...with a skateboard...on the moon! And fisting a goat! No, wait, scratch that. Spiking a football! Yeah, extreme! And the words "Open Source In-your-face POSIX-conformance 2DX-TREME!!!!!" should be written somewhere.


    But for god's sake, whatever you do, don't go with a simple, tasteful design that subtly conveys professionalism.
    Doctors amputate Turkish earthquake survivor's arm [This story contains video]

  • Have a background, or a light overlay, of the kernel source (or, a small hunk of it.) Showing whatever graphics, maybe a busy X desktop with the GIMP and other 'neat' apps open, over a background of the source.

    After all, the apps and stuff are all there because it's open source. Everything neat about GNU/Linux is because it's open source. So make the source a prominent part of the picture.

    If it was done well, it would show up fairly well on the solid colors, and be lost in the details. Enough to let people see it and recognize it (oh, source code... good idea) without dominating the picture and annoying the PHBs.
  • A million penguins typing on a million networked computers.
  • "Rampant" is often used in heraldry. I suppose a Linux Coat of Arms [fleurdelis.com] is a possibility.
    • Perhaps with Linus on the crest
    • Tux head as a helmet
    • Cox as the supporter on the left
    • Gates as the supporter on the right (an unwilling supporter, but he's helped a lot)
    • Need a motto. Through Freedom, Strength?
    • In the shield...
      • a magnifying glass over, or crossed with, a scroll
      • crossed wrench and screwdriver
      • ...what else?
  • A garland, around the shield, of woven coaxial and 10BaseT cable with connectors dangling down?
    Put Linus' Doctorate mortarboard on his head?
  • With the number of animals used as logos, why not make a zoo or a circus, and have users walking around, pointing, showing their children, sketching/taking notes (on laptops), feeding the animals, have Linus Torvalds as the friendly zookeeper, and various other zookeepers (programmers) taking care of the animals (hint, hint: open source), and maybe have a big entrance gate "outlining" the whole scene, so that it's like, the reader of the magazine is invited in...
    I would buy that magazine just for the cover. :)
    What magazine is this for, anyway?

  • Don't overkill the penguin (Score:4)

    by debrain ( 29228 ) on Friday November 05, 1999 @09:51AM (#1560122) Journal
    Admittedly, Tux has been a great refinement of our view of Linux, but let's not overkill it. Some way to graphically portray people from all over the world, united by free software, seems more apt to cover Linux community, rather than Tux, which seems symbolic of Linux software.

    Then there are some twists -- like throwing in how this is pulling away from the corporate philosophy of profit, and moving towards the philanthropic philosophy of most members of this community

    The penguin is an idol -- it's a nice single-symbol entity that Linux is reflected in. But it does not portray much real information about what Linux is.

    It's all about people. Not to get wierd on you :), but I believe that Linux is about giving power to people. Linux is about rebellion and defiance, an anathema to corruption (speak not of it getting corrupted itself) and a way to perpetuate good technology, in the face of technological and economic and marketing forces working against it.

    It's a philosophy. It is poetic justice.

  • I saw a poster years ago about the next
    generation of computers.

    It was like a 3d bar chart comparing the US to
    Japan in the race. The US bar was much higher. People (men) where drawn on top of each bar.
    The Americans where fighting each other, like
    king of the hill stuff. The Japanese where standing on each others shoulders.

    Funny, haven't thought about that picture in years.
  • This is definitely a good idea.

    The very nature of the LIMP emphasizes the collaborative nature of Linux, with thousands of people and organizations each working in their own way to improve it all the time. In this sense, I would consider it to be one of the best available visuals to represent Linux.
    --
  • I would not feature Tux at all. It may be a cute mascot of sorts as others have mentioned, but certainly it will not communicate to the masses what Linux is about. It might make your task much more difficult, but the Penguin is a no-brainer easy way out.
    It's great that the penguin has been established as a mascot for Linux and it should be used whenever possible. Marketing strategists spend lots of money on coming up with a symbol people are gonna recognize. That doesn't mean Tux has to be the center of attention on such a cover, and it would be great if not the exact same image of Tux would be used over and over again as it is the case (look at the ads of a Linux-related magazine and you'll find a gazillion copies of that EPS(?!) file). However, people with a computer background will recognize the penguin-Linux connection immediately, and covers are about getting the attention of someone looking at it. You can hardly start elaborating on Linux' stability etc. on the cover of a magazine! If there is a cute penguin, alright, that's a beginning. Maybe the network aspect could be emphasized somehow.
  • I would not feature Tux at all. It may be a cute mascot of sorts as others have mentioned, but certainly it will not communicate to the masses what Linux is about. It might make your task much more difficult, but the Penguin is a no-brainer easy way out.

    The image should focus on the positive aspects of Linux and disregard, completely, Adobe, MS, or other software publishers who do not support Linux.

    I mean, if the arguments for using Linux have to include a discourse on why something else is bad or wrong in order to convince someone to use Linux, then isn't that just giving FUD to those the community argues uses FUD themselves?

    I've got to think that most of you are a little more innovative than that and that a good image of Linux can be created that rests on its own merits.

  • Ah yes, of course, Brand Recognition. A very good objective.

    Still, a more subtle presentation of Tux would be desireable, rather than just big and bold in the center. It's a tough task, to convey all the positive uses for the OS in an image.

  • or walking out of it. Make the house be your typical suburbia image. Illustrate graphically that Linux has come from the Virtual Garages of thousands of worldwide developers. "The Next Big Thing" is overused but text to that effect would be nice. "The Ensuing Large Object" or sum such.
  • You know, there are so many window managers out there, you don't want to get slammed for endorsing one over the other.

    How 'bout a plain, command-line session of VI, world's most exquisite "word processor." That always makes *me* think of Linux, anyway. ;-)
    --------------------------------------------- -------------
  • Hmmm. Playgeek? Pictures of naked women endorsing computer products. On second thought, scratch that... it's really disturbing and makes me feel bad that I thought of it. I've been bad, and should be punished.
    --------------------------------------- -------------------
  • I like the idea of having penguins, but we are people (despite what some of you may think ;-)

    How about a bunch of people at a rally. The shot is facing the stage, so all you see is a bunch of heads crowded together, hands in the air, general commotion.

    On the stage is a Peguin, perhaps behind a podium, or even better yet, in front of some huge flag and wearing a uniform (sorta like in Patton).

    Well? :-)
    -peace
  • Maybe on of these ideas would suffice...

    I'm thinking less of how one captures the software's mojo in an image, than how to capture that of the GNU/Linux community. Much like the late Power Computing's extremist advertising for their Mac clones ("You can take my Mac when you pry my cold, dead fingers from the mouse", and so on).

    1- The image of Tux cloned and overlaid into what looks like a legion of penguins marching in a column. Headline reads, "It Takes a Budget of Trillions to Hold Us Back." (Possibly "Marketing Budget of Billions"). Highly representative of the legions of GNU/Linux faithful. Bound to piss someone off.

    2- The image of Tux, inside a circle formed from the logos of industry heavyweights (IBM and so forth) who have recently jumped on the bandwagon, adding momentum. A little too obvious, but it's highly representative of GNU/Linux's move from finge to mainstream OS.

    3- The _most_ obvious thing would be a screenshot of sorts. Picking the X-Window manager is going to be tough, but KDE or GNOME would seem the most topical (GNOME especially). A focus on interface niceties like menus and icons is necessary, as is multimedia (read: Netscape, XMMS, and GIMP). Maybe a nice Office suite. A transparent terminal window with the ridiculously-long system uptime, maybe. *How* to fit this all onto a magazine cover is outside of the scope of this posting! =:)
  • A penguin, a gnu, and Linus Torvalds smoking cigars and playing poker.
  • How about a Ferris wheel with a distro logo in each seat and linus at the control lever with a penguin behind him about to bite him on the butt.Various other logo characters could be trying to climb over the fence and up the side of the wheel while it's moving. The circus motif is rife with applicable character sources? Suggestions for clown? ringmaster? human cannonball?
  • How about a Ferris wheel with a distro logo in each seat and linus at the control lever with a penguin behind him about to bite him on the butt.Various other logo characters could be trying to climb over the fence and up the side of the wheel while it's moving. The circus motif is rife with applicable character sources: suggestions for clown? ringmaster? human cannonball?
  • Sorry - double post.
  • Being drawn in the GIMP with other programs in the background.
  • How 'bout involving a cathedral and a bazaar?

    Maybe pictures of them being edited in the GIMP.

    Or is just a screenshot lame?

    -Frank
  • A mountain of embattled coders, keyboard/swords held high in celebration atop piles of defeated Windoze boxes, and at the very pinnacle of the mountain, an over-the-top-Conan-looking Penguin, CD distro held high, the sun shining off it... All surrounded by peasants, gleefully picking up free CDs :)

  • This is going to be labeled flamebait, but the Gimp is not superior to Photoshop--nonexistant/poor support for process color, color calibration, pantone, etc. Don't get me wrong--Gimp is a great image editor, but before I can use it for production, it needs to be more pre-press friendly.

    (The reminds me, wasn't someone porting Gimp to Be? I haven't used Be in so long, I've lost touch...)

    Just my 2px...


  • We're really "with it" aren't we? I run Linux at, at work (my doing) and I recommend it. But I own a Mac (WHOA!) Am I some kinda WEIRDO? Well yes, but that's not the point. Point is plenty of people don't give a damn what their computer run or how it works - so what? Mac is a fine computer, it CAN run Linux, mine runs MacOS X Server (part time) and I think it's great. People like you HURT our cause - I don't want to see a Linux only universe, where could we get ideas from?

    As to the cover (the purpose if this) why not a Really nice graphic (of something) and simply the words: "Created with Linux". Or a screen shot of GIMP with the screen slightly unfinished and people (some in t-shirts & jeans, some in pyjamas, some in boxers) finishing it. Just an idea.
  • Focus on that. Thousands of people all working together, no giants. Maybe an aerial shot of a LOT of people in a field, collectively in the shape of a penguin.

    Shouldn't be too hard to do with graphics composition, should it?

  • Quake3 is low-end graphics. High-end gaming maybe, but when was last time a high-end CAD rendering had models with 1-2000 ploys.

    Graphics that are being rendered in real time on home PCs 60 times per second are by definition not high end.

    -
    /. is like a steer's horns, a point here, a point there and a lot of bull in between.
  • I saw a great picture of a cute chick, wearing ladies briefs, standing in front of a Cray. The panties said Linux on the band.

    You could have the code of the teardrop hack "tattooed" on her tight little body.
  • A penguin rampant, using a chalkboard eraser to wipe out the blue screen of death. That sums it up neatly, don't you think?
  • I'd agree... I'm from an area where penguins are distinctly leaner and more ferocious looking, (so. island new zealand), and the Tux mascot has always struck me as a bit insipid. A little too chunky, a little too harmless... there are lots of penguins out there. I'd like to see the slow introduction of a few more penguinish ones.
  • While Sheriff Adobe, Microsoft and Apple hold up a struggling graphic artist.

    "Arghh, take from the poor graphic artists and give to King Gates!"

    George
  • You mean that old claymation cartoon with the dog and the boy.

    "Hey Goliath, do you think we should write a competitor to Windows?"

    "Aw gee, Davey, I don't know, is that right?"

    George
  • idea:
    a nice rendering of the tux penguin in a lady liberty stance holding your favorite distro's box instead of the tablet.
    Not sure what to place the torch with.
    Any ideas?
    Lady liberty represents stability, reliability, and freedom.

    just a suggestion
    ----- --- - - -
    jacob rothstein
  • To me, and for people unfamiliar with Linux, I don't think Linux's strengths is adquately described by a penguin or any other anecdotal picture. What I would like to show people about linux is that it is amazingly sound, and stable, but at the same time has a humongous bevy of fervent supporters, programmers/coders, contributers, debuggers...a rich community. I think the community needs to be stressed. People don't USE Linux, the community GAINS people.

    I don't know maybe a slide-procession showing a sheet of paper with some diagrams, code, cookie crumbles and coffee. The next slide is a PC with a console prompt. The next slide is a depiction of a vast global network superimposed with Q3 screenshots, productivity apps, web browser, etc.
    Sort of cartoon like, showing the community culture and how it made Linux come to fruition.
  • I threw it together about 4 months ago.
  • http://www.beachdogsoftware.com/tux-bong3.png I threw it together about 4 months ago.
  • Show a penguin in that room in the Emerald City before the great and powerful OS, which would look just like the great and powerful (and scary) Wizard of OZ. The penguin would be looking behind the curtain at the little man pulling all the levers and turning all the knobs. What is the picture illustrating? That when you understand the concepts behind and OS, programming it isn't so intimidating (i.e. Open Source). Maybe put a sign on the booth that says, "source code."
  • A Penguin. . . a BIIIIIIG penguin leading a band of little demons and gnus and swirls and secret agents in red hats and geeks and girls and bears and bees and lispy-macs, troming through a land of beautiful flowers and happy programmers! Whee!

    But WAIT. Off in the distance, near that daark and forboding mountain. . . the RED MOUND. . . thousands of evil Denizens pouring out of the DREAD GATES of HELL, er, I mean, BILL!

    But WAIT AGAIN! The good GNUs are taking up arms! The PENGUIN RALLIETH THEM FORTH! Armageddon? Is this the FINAL BATTLE? Is that the VOICE of the ELDER GOD DOJ raining from the HEAVENS?

    The DENIZENS RUSH FORWARD, to CRUSH the lowly ones! But see how their kludgey swords BREAK! See how they CRASH! Our Stalwart Heroes Fight On!

    The battle RAGETH STILL!

    Put that on the cover. :-)-~

    -Omar

  • I agree totally. A penguin shows nothing about linux to someone who doesn't know about linux. I'm not sure what the precise purpose of the cover is, but if any of the audience is going to be non-linux users, a penguin as the sole representation of linux is not the way to go. You could incorporate a penguin into a more complex design, but a big tux on the cover of a magazine wouldn't prove much to me :)

    I realize this only tells you what NOT to do, not what TO do... I'll try to think of something, but at this point you have 140 other ideas to work with :)

    "Then I'll tell the truth. We're allowed to do that in emergencies."

  • A Tie-dye wearing Tux playing a left-handed strat a la Jimi Hendrix. You can play with all sorts of colors and support the 'power to the people' message. Go for the tech 60's revival.

    A giant Tux, in space, sitting on the Earth, like its a penguin egg ready to hatch. Ooo, I like that one. Maybe you can use one of those famous 'whole earth' photos.

    Tux and the Gates and Jobs holding up three identical pictures with their respective computers in the background. Under the photos you can list out Labor cost, Software cost, OS costs,etc...

    Bah, If I had my way it would be Tux taking a flamethrower to Redmond, which is why I'd make a terrible graphic designer.

  • Yeah that's right, or upsidedown right. Baha, puns.
    That reminds me of this Hendrix compilation album I saw where they inversed the picture of Jimi so he's playing right handed. It was pretty funny, I haven't seen that cover in a long time. Hopefully someone caught on. Though Fender did make a lefty guitar for Jimi, but I'm not sure I've ever seen him play it live.

    And to remain on topic: How about Tux as the judge for the DoJ trial with him slamming down the gavel and yelling, "Guilty!"

  • Stick to the features (Score:3)

    by blazer1024 ( 72405 ) on Friday November 05, 1999 @10:25AM (#1560173)
    The penguin is nice, but it doesn't really tell you anything about Linux. (Does linux need a cold room to work?) You need something that illustrates it's features and or it's versatility.

    Show something somewhat abstract looking, like a small network diagram, with an overlapped screen shot of the GIMP working on a colorful photo. Throw in some command line stuff showing server configuring and it's Un*x like style, then show some clips of a word processor and a browser displaying a nice web page. Then top it off with a tad of 3D images, in a freely available modeller, or some such, and throw all that together into a beautiful peice of artwork. Show off features, rather than just a penguin. (If you put Tux in, throw him one of the screen shots, like an embedded graphic in the word processor or something.)

    Well, those are my ideas. If you need any help, don't hesitate to e-mail me. :)
  • If you can get your hands on the rights to http://rio.dhs.org/penguin.html [dhs.org], I think that would be great. You can't argue that it doesn't "Show Linux".

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