I recently introduced my parents to Linux.

I don’t use Linux regularly. I have Vista installed on my fancy new HP laptop. I have Ubuntu installed in a virtual machine. I use it for… well, nothing right now. (This is a tangent:) I installed it so I could test out code for desktop apps to ensure cross-platform working-ness. I spent about five hours installing, updating, fixing, etc. and haven’t written a single line of code yet. So much for productivity. I failed to install LFS three times. I also tried Gentoo. And Open SUSE and Fedora. And Mint…

Anyways, I introduced my parents to Linux, which I installed on my old, not-often-used desktop. After a quick, “This is what you click to check online banking and watch youtube,” introduction, away they went. Well, I should say away my step-dad went, because my mom is technophobic enough using Windows that she isn’t allowed to touch anything after warranty.

Four months and a Windows XP laptop later, and my step-dad is convinced he doesn’t actually have any business installing anything that won’t run natively on Linux. As an aside, their old desktop was bought in 2000, still has Windows ME on it, and was loaded to the point of “Not enough memory/disk space” for any little thing due to his nasty habit of clicking on banner ads and installing whatever it suggests, especially if that is a poker application.

So he was browsing and finding his comfort zone, and he “heard about this awesome application that boosts productivity, looks awesome, runs on Linux, is fully customizable, makes dinner for you, changes diapers” etc. Well, maybe not all that, but along those lines.

My ears perked up because I am lazy and thoroughly enjoy things that will double my output while halving my input (and proving him wrong with my jaded sarcastic ‘wit’ isn’t bad, either). “Oh, really? What was it?”

“It was a foot.”

There was no “and.” There was no explanation. A friend suggested I provide context. That’s it. He must have lost his ability to interpret my facial expressions, because even with the supreme “Huh?” pasted on my forehead, he continued to stare blankly waiting for me to respond. After much deliberating, I sufficed:

“Huh?”

“Do I need to say it again?” he responded.

It was a foot…

It was a foot…

It was a foot…

It was a foot…

“Huh?”

You see, humans are commonly known to be driven by symbolism. We want things to be represented by a sign or symbol, because they’re “easy to remember.” A red light means stop. A red circle with a line through it means, “No.” We should all recognize the USB symbol (context may be required), or the sign for hazardous materials.

But sometimes, we get it wrong. Sometimes, we start a business, we’re making business cards, and we just want a symbol, so we open up PhotoShop and use random bits of letters in various fonts to make one. Sometimes, like in the case of the triquetra, a symbol means any number of things. The fleur-de-lis, while beautiful, means nothing to all but a handful of people who study heraldry.

If you want a logo, it must:

• Be simple
• Be original
• Be related
• Be memorable
• Be recognizable

“The Foot” appeared to be a symbol, based on the previous statement of humans, and a few eliminating questions.

It was simple, I suppose. We can all agree a foot isn’t too complicated (podiatrists not included) . It was obviously memorable. And probably original, unless Procter and Gamble decided to make a new logo for a very specific cream.

But was it related? Or recognizable?

Upon finding the answer, it was absolutely not related:

GNOME

Yes, it was GNOME.

Anybody familiar with Linux will know that symbol immediately, so it is the golden arches or check mark of Linux desktop environments.

However, it should apply in all situations.

Is there any American over the age of, say, 10 who won’t immediately think McDonald’s and Nike when reading those two? If I just say, “Some chain that claims they’ve helped a lot of people… It was a big yellow M,” won’t you be able to narrow it down pretty quickly?

I can’t do that with GNOME, and I certainly can’t do it for well over half the symbols I’ve seen.

If you want a symbol, make it apparently related in some capacity. No funny story, unless the symbol is representing the funny story behind creating the symbol for the story (I use recursion here simply to please any would-be disappointed nerds).

GNOME fails that test. Do you?

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