User:Comrade Pajitnov/OS-tan
 | This article possibly contains original research. (January 2009) |
 |
This is a list of OS-tans, which are named after the operating system and the Japanese suffix "-tan" (たん) which is an overly cute mispronunciation of, specifically a child's slurring of, "-chan" (ちゃん), a diminutive honorific for a person. They may be simply called OS Girls, and are the personification of several operating systems, most famously Microsoft Windows, by various (amateur) artists, the overwhelming majority of them being users of the Japanese imageboard Futaba Channel. A pure fan creation, the appearance of each character is mostly consistent across artists. OSes are almost always portrayed as women, the Windows girls usually as sisters, despite sometimes seeming the same age.
The OS girls[edit]
Windows[edit]
ME[edit]
The more cutesy personification of the much maligned and infamously unreliable Windows Me OS, ME-tan's appearance rarely varies and was the first OS-tan created, by the one now called "ME-aki". She is instantly recognizable; she has green hair in long pigtails and wears a maid outfit with a ! badge on the front in the spirit of the Windows yellow error icon. ME-tan is a hard worker and always wants to help her master (Toshiaki), but predictably fails at everything she tries to do, and often literally crashing and irritating her sisters. When she is not frozen or out of control, she tends to do things showing a lack of common sense or knowledge, such as putting soda into a microwave oven or attempting to kill people by swinging a scallion (see here). In spite of, or perhaps due to, her pitiful plight, the clumsy ME-tan is one of the most beloved OS girls.
XP[edit]
XP-tan is a dark-haired girl with ribbons in her hair and an "XP" hair ornament worn on the left side (infrequently, she is depicted with ornaments on both sides). As Windows XP is criticized for bloating a system and being very pretty without being equally as useful, XP-tan wears tight clothing and has large breasts. Also, as Windows XP uses up large amounts of memory, XP-tan is often seen eating or holding an empty donburi labeled "Memory." A variant that represents XP Home is known as "Homeko" (pronounced [homeko], not [ˈhoʊmko]) has green hair that she wears in a short ponytail and wears two large XP-shaped hairclips that cover her ears. She is characterized as a fujoshi and yaoi doujinshi artist who has an unhealthy fascination with her gender-confused brother Homeo (/homeo/). There is a rarer variant representing Windows XP Media Center Edition. The costumes of the two main variants are based on the loading lines at the Windows splash screen during startup.
2000[edit]
A few variants exist, but the most common is Win2K Professional. She is typically drawn as an intelligent, professional, reserved looking woman with short blue hair, glasses, and hairclips that resemble cat ears flanking a small white bonnet or ruffle, similar to maid's hairclip, that shows the windows logo. Her outfit resembles a swimsuit suggesting the Windows logo colors, and she wears a blue long coat. This is thought to reflect the opinion that Windows 2000 is the most stable, dependable, and balanced system. She is characterized as the "dependable woman" among the OS-tans and one of the domain controllers. Because of the greater stability of Win2K compared with WinME, which was released near 2K, 2K-tan is often described as a guardian of ME-tan. The blue in the picture is close to the default Windows 2000 desktop colour.
2k-tan is often associated with Futanari, and is sometimes depicted as being one herself.
95[edit]
95, being an older version of "modern" Windows, is usually represented as a traditional lady from the early modern era of Japan. She is a gentle-looking brown haired woman in a kimono, with a hair ribbon showing the four Windows colors. The pattern of her kimono is based on the file "hana256.bmp," which was used as a desktop wallpaper pattern in the Japanese version of Windows. Her costume is a traditional kimono and a hakama of Japan, and she wears thick sandals, geta on her feet. These are women's college student's typical clothes as seen in the earliest period during the course of the modernization in Japan (from the Meiji period to the Taisho period), and the cultural background for the comparison of the modernization of Windows to modernization of Japan is seen there.
Her most common activities are drinking tea, serving meals or doing other housework. One recurring theme is her unfamiliarity with newer, post Win-95 technologies, such as USB devices and broadband internet connections. She is also occasionally depicted wielding a katana in an aggressive manner, symbolizing that it was her generation of operating systems that Microsoft finally achieved full dominance of the personal computer market. One comic strip shows her talking to other OS-tans about beating up MacOS; and 95 is commonly portrayed with an overwhelming hatred of the Macintosh OS-Tans, particularly her bitter rival MacOS-tan.
Due the popular belief that Mozilla Firefox is incompatible with Windows 95, several OS-tan four-panel comics have been made portraying other OS-tans encouraging 95-tan to "think in Russian!" and 95-tan's inability to internalize the Russian language enough to accomplish this.
Windows 95 OSR 2.5[edit]
The last patched version of 95, Windows 95 OSR 2.5, resembles the first but has shorter hair, and outfits are black and dark coloured versions of 95's. She also has a more extroverted personality. She "appeared out of the shadow of the OSes to challenge the 98 series" and seems to regard 98-tan especially as a rival, but no matter what she does to 98, the other OS regards her as a well-meaning friend. She is sometimes seen wearing a black skirt, black gloves, and a white sleeveless shirt like 98, but with a red tie and black 95 style bow.
98 and 98SE[edit]
Many variations exist; however, the most common is a pair of young girls. The First Edition of 98 has a white and blue uniform, a navy blue hair with a clip shaped like "98", and has a windows logo as part of a necktie, she is also sometimes seen as a futanari (female with male genitals) and is said to fancy Homeo. The 98 Second Edition mascot normally has grey-blue hair and a green sailor school uniform with the letters SE on the front, and her most commonly used phrase is "all dicks seriously need to die".
Two early versions that continue to be used alongside the girls are a pair of stick-limbed snack-boxes with a face and version number drawn in crayon, based on the "Vulcan 300" toy that appeared in the anime series Konjiki no Gash Bell!!. In the very early days before the designs of the primary OS-tans had settled, generic stick-limbed boxes were often used as placeholders; there had been instances of small DOS and Windows 3.11 boxes before other designs gained popularity. Both girls now make regular use of these as "mechanical suits." The "mech-box" used by 98 is blue in colour, and likewise the 98SE mech-box has a green theme. The mechs are sometimes shown as guardians or friends to the 98-tans, otherwise the two girls can be seated inside them as pilots. The box sizes can vary, ranging from doll-like when carried by the girls to taller than an adult when they ride inside them. While both are fairly shy girls, 98SE is seen hiding in her mech-box a lot more often.
NT[edit]
This character is not very common. She usually has the purple hair and the pink dress seen here, but her age can range from child to adult. Sometimes she is also portrayed as the mother of 2K-tan.
Another version, Windows NT Workstation, also exists and has recently been more common than the original NT-tan, at least on the Futaba image boards. "NT" has the romaji representation of "enu ti"—this sounds a lot like "inu ti", and "inu" is the Japanese word for dog. Inu-T has blue hair, dog ears, a dog's tail and a collar. She usually wears gloves and boots shaped like paws, and colored blue to match her ears and tail.
Yet another NT-tan, Windows NT SP6, was designed by the dōjinshi group Deja vu, but it was considered a bootleg design by Futaba society and not an "official" OS-Tan. (See "Dispute between Futaba Society and Deja Vu" for the details.)
CE[edit]
Being an OS designed for small devices, the personification of Windows CE (CE for short) is portrayed as diminutive and fairy-like; complete with gossamer wings and wielding a USB cable wand. Because a modified version of Windows CE was the operating system of the Dreamcast console, there are several illustrations of CE standing upon or around the Dreamcast's "swirl" logo.
Vista (Longhorn)[edit]
Longhorn's most distinguishing characteristic is usually her horn-shaped pigtails (some variants have up to four pigtails). Silver or white hair appears to be the most frequent, although light blue and black are also seen. A common costume design was a white and red sailor fuku and stockings. Since the release of more details about Vista's interface, her look has changed slightly. A black maid's outfit is now emerging in popularity (which matches the new default Vista color scheme), as well as a circular Windows logo hair clip, identical to the new Start Menu button in Vista. No word yet on whether breast size or appetite will increase dramatically with Vista, to reflect the increased system requirements compared to previous Windows operating systems.
2003 Server (Saba)[edit]
2003 Server is often portrayed as being half-girl, half-fish, with an ethernet hub as a bonnet on her head. Other versions show her as a girl with a short white skirt and a vest-style top with a long tail in the back (usually with a bow) and Windows four-square logo pins in the bow at her neck and on the tail. In some forms, she has a belt made from ethernet cable wrapped around her waist. Saba is a pun: in Japanese, the word for "server" is pronounced "saaba", while "saba" is the word for mackerel.
Saba-tan is constantly being eaten by cats (another fish gag), also in one episode, Windows 95 is seen cooking Saba-tan for lunch, she has been gutted, stunned, and placed on a cutting board as 95 is seen with a sharp knife, preparing to chop Saba-tan up and cook her for ME and 2K to eat. It is still unknown how she escaped that situation since she was unconscious while 95 held the knife up ready to chop her up.
Also in the picture of all the OS-tans, she is seen becoming a cats lunch, however she returns in a later comic, indicating that she somehow escaped being eaten for lunch, or the fact that there are many Saba OS-tans in the OS-tan universe.
Windows 3.1 or WfW 3.11[edit]
A rare character, the few appearances of Windows 3.1 have used a white "mech-box" similar to that used by 98 and 98SE, piloted by a girl who appears to be DOS/V. Another version becoming more popular is a frail grey-haired young woman in a long frilly violet gown, with a "3.1" brooch on her collar. She is usually accompanied by either a black cat or a small black-haired catgirl in a nurse's outfit, both representing DOS.
Unreleased Microsoft Operating Systems[edit]
Occasionally, artwork appears for internally developed versions of Windows, that were never or still have yet to be commercially released, such as those with the project names Blackcomb, Odyssey, and Windows Neptune.
Neptune was to have been the "Home Edition" of Windows 2000, but was dropped as a release project in favor of Windows ME. The currently preferred OS-tan character design has her resembling an Android from the online game Phantasy Star Online. She is easily recognized by the visor she wears, and a Shinto O-fuda demon-protection charm being used to keep her banished from the real world.
Odyssey, the second attempt at a "Home" version of Windows 2000, appears as a senior high-school girl in a blue-themed uniform, wearing glasses and a gold CDR disc as a hairpiece or halo. As this operating system was never formally published, its release was limited to an impromptu supply from the developers' own desktop CD burners, using gold CDR blanks.
(The third attempt to merge the functionality of the Windows NT and Windows 9X Operating Systems into a single product, project Whistler, is better known today as Windows XP.)
DOS[edit]
MS-DOS[edit]
A rarer character, MS-DOS is a cute but very shy little girl carrying around a keyboard and usually peeking around corners. The implication is that, like MS-DOS itself on non-NT versions of Windows, she is always lurking somewhere in the background, just out of sight.
MSX-DOS[edit]
A rarer character, MSX-DOS is another variation on MS-DOS. She represents the Microsoft Japan version of DOS, MSX-DOS. She is rarely seen but remains to be included in recent images.
DOS/V[edit]
DOS/V is a variant of PC-DOS designed with Japanese language support. She is about the same size as MS-DOS but has long grey or grey-blue hair and a dark bodysuit. She is also a lot less shy.
Mac[edit]
Mac OS[edit]
Mac OS is the commonly known MacOS girl during the early times of the OS-tan creation. Being short-tempered, she is mostly known for being into insane rages when angered. She wears a "platinum white" bodysuit. She usually carries a large apple on her head, or a bomb from the standard Macintosh error dialog. She always uses those bombs against the Windows girls. Knowing that she always had a bitter rivalvry against 95-tan, their rivalry is based on true to life situation about the same year Apple System 7.5 and Windows 95 were released.
She is also seen to use her bombs on other characters like Toshiaki in a 4koma and also whenever the OSX-kuns do something perverted against her and OS9. In fact, she is also once known as OS9 in Futaba long ago until after that time, the girl "Sonata teacher" have came from a standard wallpaper for OS 9. Some artist also referred her as "OSX" although there is a dispute due to MacOSX are used to have the Apple "wild cat" naming tradition.
Even though she is short-tempered and always seen irritated on other OS-tans, she becomes friendly whenever she is given appreciation.
Mac OS 8[edit]
Mac OS 8 is a character occasionally seen at Futaba Channel. Her hat's colors are based on the rainbow Apple logo of the classic Macintosh. She is rarely seen, and pictures of her are only available at an old archive specializing in the Mac OS girls. It can be found here.
Mac OS 9[edit]
Mac OS 9 is currently the most common and adored MacOS girl. Japanese artists frequently refer to her as "Sonata sensei". She wears a white dress with the Mac face logo on the skirt with a slit up the front that follows the nose/profile line. Unlike MacOS-tan, she is always seen as cheerful, modest and responsible like 2k-tan. Knowing that she is the only maid in the Mac group. She is always responsible for taking care of the OSX girls. Her main hobby is art (mostly painting).
Also unlike MacOS-tan, she had a good relations with the other OS-tans like Windows girls. She is mostly seen hanging out with ME-tan, and like XP-tan, she would often be seen in ecchi situations in the Mac 4koma. See here
Mac OS X[edit]
The Mac OS X girl is often portrayed as cat-eared, following with the Apple "wild cat" naming tradition. (Every Mac OS X release has a codename like "Jaguar", "Panther", "Tiger" and so on.) Otherwise, she is shown as an older variation of the Mac OS 9 girl, wearing a platinum white coat and a wireless AirPort device fashioned as a hat. She is occasionally shown holding a publication of some sort, as Macs are often used for desktop publishing.
Linux[edit]
Originally seen as a bearded penguin (a reference to Tux, the penguin mascot of the kernel program Linux), the more friendly image of a girl with helmet and flippers was chosen as a human alternative. Her helmet usually has horns on it, likely a reference to the GNU operating system whose components usually combine the system programs in Linux systems (hence "GNU/Linux"). The "gear-teeth" on the helmet is a reference to KDE, a common desktop environment used with GNU/Linux. Also, the foot symbol on her shirt is a reference to GNOME, another common desktop environment. She is often seen with a spear that has flags attached representing the GRUB, LILO and GCC tools for GNU/Linux. The helmet and spear most likely reference the high level of attention to security (defensive helmet) and hacking (offensive spear) found in Linux applications.
Linspire[edit]
A girl with blue and green hair who wears a white shirt. As the color of her hair is similar to that of a scallion, she is usually referred to as "Scallion girl". She represents the Linspire distribution of Linux, formerly known as Lindows.
Other Distros[edit]
As there are numerous distributions of Linux, it makes sense to have a different OS-Tan for each one (or at least the popular ones).
An artist who goes by the name of juzo-kun has gone that extra step and developed a different girl for each of the 10 most popular distributions. There's one for Arch, Debian, Fedora, Gentoo, Knoppix, Mandriva, Red Hat, Slackware, Suse, and Ubuntu.
Other characters[edit]
Norton AntiVirus[edit]
Doctor Norton, an unspeakably lecherous old doctor, personifies the Symantec Norton AntiVirus software. His appearance as a Japanese ghost (the whisp of smoke style tail end instead of legs) is a reference to the Norton Ghost system recovery tool. Norton is a pervert to maximum force and is known to invite the OS-tans in for "Inspection" even when they're fully healthy, he does it for the purpose of undressing them. He has also sold porno magazines of the OS-tans while they were deactivated and being "inspected". Norton does it for the purpose of being perverted and making himself some cash.
Trend Micro Virus Buster[edit]
A personification of another antivirus software. He is a young boy, with blonde hair who wears a white T-shirt with the words "Trend Micro" on it and red shorts. He wears a red cap backwards, a band-aid on his cheek and carries a blue satchel bag. It seems that he also likes to take a peep at OS-tans' bodies, so-called "virus scan", just like Doctor Norton.
McAfee Antivirus[edit]
A personification of another antivirus software, but images of this character are rare. Unlike the two antivirus programs above, McAfee Antivirus is a blonde woman, wearing a long red dress. She is occasionally seen wearing a monocle, or period European wear, also in a red-yellow coloring scheme. It seems that both Doctor Norton and Trend Micro welcome her existence, due to her beauty.
Toshiaki[edit]
A personification of typical anonymous users that visit the image boards of Futaba (i.e. Nijiura). Sometimes portrayed as the OS-tans' "master", representing computer users in general. He is as perverted as Norton, if not more so. There is a short series of comics in which he tries to take advantage of the OS-tans by getting them drunk, but gets beaten up each time.
The name "Toshiaki" comes from Futaba Channel, where it is the default name for anonymous users.
Outlook[edit]
Based on Microsoft Outlook, a blonde girl in a blue maid uniform, with a white apron and orange collar bow. Delivers mail to the OS-tans.
We-tan[edit]
She was supposedly created as the evil twin of Me-tan. She looks like ME-tan, but her hair is green inverted to pink, her nurse's clothes are black, and Me's "!" is replaced by a "?" or an inverted "¡". She is a rival to ME-tan and is jealous of her. Her real name is Taeko. She lives and works with Yamada-san, who was the original design for 98-tan (but was subsequently rejected by Nijiura).
Google-tan[edit]
Another rare character depicting Google's search engine as a formally dressed businesswoman with rectangular glasses and a minimalistic headset, she can also be seen carrying a clipboard.
An even rarer variant is Chinese Google-tan who looks exactly the same except for an inverted red color scheme with the Chinese flag on the front. Her existence is a response to the Chinese government's censorship of Google searches. When asked to find Tiananmen Square, Chinese Google-tan cannot find the file.
Moezilla[edit]
The Mozilla-tan are known as Moezilla.
Ubuntu-tan[edit]
In personification of the Ubuntu (Linux distribution) there exists the Ubuntu-tan.
Amiga-tan[edit]
Another rare character depicting the old Amiga operating system as a casually dressed artist with rainbow eyes, plaid shirt, and artist supplies.
She was not the creation of Futaba Channel or Nijiura, but that of OS-Tan Collections, creator of several other new OS-Tans.
Alternate Male OS Characters[edit]
Referred to as the "OS-kuns", where "-kun" is the Japanese honorific commonly used informally between males, are counterpart characters of the OS-tans.
XP-kun is large man in his late teens to early 20s, with a very muscular build, wears shackles on his wrists and legs, tattered blue and white clothing not unlike XP-tan's, and several large scars forming the letters "XP" across his chest. His hair is black, and braided into a long ponytail. XP-kun has an aggressive temperament, and is known for not thinking things through.
XP Home-kun is portrayed as a gender-confused boy named Homeo, who looks akin to his sister Homeko. He fancies 98-tan, and there have been numerous occasions when they have nearly got together.
ME-kun is an unremarkable boy of high-school age wearing a green uniform, a blazer and shorts, of a private academy. Like his female counterpart he has green hair, with the long 'antenna'; but unlike ME-tan, he is often the one in charge of a situation, providing network connections, fixpacks, or reading the Help documentation to the OS-tans.
2k-kun is a rare character, but his appearance and behavior follows the style of 2k-tan, wearing business attire, fashionable reading glasses, and carries a cell-phone.
95-kun is a kimono-and-hakama-wearing samurai, probably in his 40s, armed with a katana.
Other Sabas[edit]
Other designs for the Server versions of Windows by a Japanese Doujin group called "Deja Vu" exist. They resemble the group's own designs of the Windows NT and Windows 2000 OS-tans (NT-DejaVu is a strict unpleasant woman with burgundy-coloured hair and elongated animal ears), but borrow from the standard design of OS-tan 2003 Server in being half-girl, half-mackerel.
Popularity: drawn only by "Deja Vu". Considered to be extremely unwelcome "bootleg" OS-tan designs by Futaba members.