This does suck, because I originally came to openSUSE because of Novell. I knew the name from Netware way back in the day when I actually got paid to mess with computers. I respected the name, and liked what they did, so the “open” flavor I liked because it’s a name I trust. There’s also the community goodwill they did with regards to donating code to the public domain or under GPL to help clear up some of the Linux / SCO crap. They’ve proven to me to be OSS friendly in words and deed so I support them (and have bought swag from them directly, since I don’t plan to pay “commercial OS license fees” for my homelab). Any other name that doesn’t have that pedigree will be a step backwards to me.
WITH ALL THAT SAID: Gecko Linux. Or Geeko. Both work for me. I like the lizard and would like to keep that.
AND TO ADD: That new Tumbleweed logo, ugh. I would like to go back to the old “infinity” one.
END RANT!
That’s just me tho and I know nobody cares what I think. As long as Tumbleweed stays the solid rolling distro it is now I’m not going anywhere. I do wish I could contribute in a meaningful way but I’m still learning Linux and am not much of a coder either.
I still think that the names Tumbleweed OS, Leap OS and Micro OS are the best, easy to remember and also you don’t have to learn a exotic new name.
You can also read OS as openSUSE if you want. Simple enough i think .
So, I was thinking a bit about how the project could rebrand, and I thought that the icon should be somewhat similar (if SUSE permits some similarity) so people could at least recognize the continuation between OpenSUSE and the new project.
That’s when I was thinking about what animal could go well with it.
These last days I had the idea that an axolotl could go well - I don’t know if this has already been posted by someone but here goes my thought process:
Why Axolotls? Because Axolotls are resilient animals, that have the faculty to regenerate when injured. They have had quite a lot of exposure in media recently, because they are critically endangered and near extinct in the wild , but also because of their ability to regenerate. Quite a lot of people know what they are and find them cute and interesting and thus, would be able to have a similar connection to the logo, as they have with Geeko. An Axolotl mascot could be made similar enough to the SUSE Logo so people understand that there is a certain legacy, but different enough to be recognized as something else. The regenerative resilience of Axolotls goes well with the resilience and regeneration and continuation of our project.
They are also often if not always staying in their nymph forms which could be a great symbol for some of our distributions that are rock solid and always evolving - but under the hood of their solidity - just like the axolotl.
That’s why I decided to do some doodles, beware I am really bad at drawing and some 4 years old probably draw better than me. But hey, since OpenSUSE and the project is also about having fun, why not just doodle around.
Their Latin Name is Ambystoma, so I would find Ambystoma as a Distro name really cool (or something with Axolotl which apparently means “water monster” in Aztec language), but that’s again probably too complicated .
, but also because of their ability to regenerate. Quite a lot of people know what they are and find them cute and interesting and thus, would be able to have a similar connection to the logo, as they have with Geeko. An Axolotl mascot could be made similar enough to the SUSE Logo so people understand that there is a certain legacy, but different enough to be recognized as something else. The regenerative resilience of Axolotls goes well with the resilience and regeneration and continuation of our project.
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