HP/DEC/Compaq

VMS ‘swoosh’ logo with Vernon - Page 1

I recently updated my web-site over at ‘Deathrow,’ I also made this customized OpenVMS ‘swoosh’ (30th anniversary) logo featuring Vernon the VMS shark (the DEC equivalent of the cube logo, I guess). I don't think too many have seen it yet, I thought I might as well post it here also.


Image

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:Tezro: :Indigo2: :rx2600:
eMGee wrote:
I recently updated my web-site over at ‘Deathrow,’ I also made this customized OpenVMS ‘swoosh’ (30th anniversary) logo featuring Vernon the VMS shark (the DEC equivalent of the cube logo, I guess). I don't think too many have seen it yet, I thought I might as well post it here also.


Image


The return of the shark!. You "eclipsed" VAX, which might cause some grumbling amongst a certain set of DEC devotees who would much rather see Integrity blotted out :) .

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Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!

Systems available for remote access on request.

:Indigo: :Octane: :Indigo2: :Indigo2IMP: :Indy: :PI: :O200: :ChallengeL: :O2000R: (single-CM)
There was no other way, unless I shrunk Vernon so much that he'd barely be noticeable. (By the way, what's wrong with the Integrity line? They're great quality systems, I for one love my rx2600!)

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:Tezro: :Indigo2: :rx2600:
eMGee wrote:
There was no other way, unless I shrunk Vernon so much that he'd barely be noticeable. (By the way, what's wrong with the Integrity line? They're great quality systems, I for one love my rx2600!)


Other than the fact that I don't have one yet? Technically little, but they are the first truly commodity boxes where VMS didn't enter into the design process at all (really they were HP9000 replacements). Granted, it probably made for a "stronger" VMS (in that it can now be pretty easily ported anywhere), but the synergy of the Alpha/VAX platforms and VMS was slick and led to some neat hardware/firmware innovations. True, they're now in software and thus more portable, but I do have a soft spot for solutions other than "throw more processing power and software at it", both electronic and mechanical.

Also, Integrity is not not DEC. On the other hand that means that they don't quite have the DEC ego either.

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Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!

Systems available for remote access on request.

:Indigo: :Octane: :Indigo2: :Indigo2IMP: :Indy: :PI: :O200: :ChallengeL: :O2000R: (single-CM)
You make some fair points (I loved my DEC AlphaServer 1000, despite some issues I had with it), but... Integrity, ‘commodity’?! Well, certainly not in my book! :o

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:Tezro: :Indigo2: :rx2600:
that is the ugliest damn logo i ever saw. poor DEC what happened to you...

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:Skywriter:

DECUS Member 368596
ALL the big guys have cute animals as mascots now, come on!

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:Onyx: (Maradona) :Octane: (DavidVilla) A1186 (Xavi)
A1370 (Messi) dp43tf (Puyol) A1387 (Abidal) A1408 (Guardiola)

"InfiniteReality Graphics - Power Through Complexity"
The choice for the shark, Vernon , was quite clever; very well thought out in fact and had more to it than many might presume. Below are two quotes on the history of Vernon the VMS mascot, from the excellent VAXination.ca .


Quote:
I created the OpenVMS Shark logo long ago (early '90's) for the original 'OpenVMS Champions' program - a worldwide group of business managers who were drivers and advocates of OpenVMS in their local geographies. The reasoning around the logo was that the shark and OpenVMS shared attributes such as:

  • They have both been around forever.
  • They are extremely fast and flexible.
  • They never stop.
  • They will take on (eat) anything and continue to operate.
  • They operate in packs/clusters.
  • And although they will never be cute they are the most efficient and effective machines in their environments.

The tag line for the group was:
In an ocean full of guppy operating systems, wouldn't you want to be the king of the seas?



Regards,

John P. Smith
OpenVMS Systems and Servers Group
Quote:
The shark's name is Vernon because one of the first things we used it on was supposed to have the shark and OpenVMS Version x.x (I think it was 6.2 but could have been 6.0). anyway it came back as OpenVMS Vernon x.x so the shark was thus named Vernon...

I know we killed ASAP the collateral (I think it was shirts and maybe mugs).


Warren Sander
OpenVMS Systems and Servers Group

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:Tezro: :Indigo2: :rx2600:
skywriter wrote:
that is the ugliest damn logo i ever saw. poor DEC what happened to you...


The spiral thing doesn't make much sense, but HP seems to like it. I guess it's supposed to show the continuity of the OpenVMS Experience or something similar. It's hard to read, doesn't give much of a temporal feeling (the VAX section is too short for reality or aesthetics), and the turns are convoluted.

Vernon is cool in a "rogue" way, for the reasons given. I think he was generally only "semi-official" and early to mid '90s birthdate, so the age and the fact that the full weight of the marketing department wasn't behind him explains a bit of the FOSS logo look.

_________________
Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!

Systems available for remote access on request.

:Indigo: :Octane: :Indigo2: :Indigo2IMP: :Indy: :PI: :O200: :ChallengeL: :O2000R: (single-CM)
SAQ wrote:
I think he was generally only "semi-official" and early to mid '90s birthdate, so the age and the fact that the full weight of the marketing department wasn't behind him explains a bit of the FOSS logo look.


having been in the middle of it up until '96, my observation at the time was it was going downhill, the economy was cutting into DEC quite hard, and we were divided by 36 bit, and 32 bit loyalties. making the jump from one family to the other was difficult for everyone. toward the end the trajectory of development was pretty obvious; crank out a VAX on a chip for cost, and build a super-VAX to compete IBM"s 3080 and 3090 Mainframes. i jumped ship to work on 3rd party plug compatibles for both companies as well as HP, Apollo, Prime, and Wang to name a few. from that perspective the love of DEC, TOPS-20, and VMS was just that; love. there really was nothing intrinsically awesome about any of them from the inside. once you reverse engineered their products it was really all the same stuff inside. the only thing that stuck out was that DEC products were easier to reverse engineer. whether that was because i was most familiar with DEC, or that the engineering principles were much more obvious than other companies *shrug*. i love them none the less now, but from the perspective that it's just my personal bias at work. which certainly must apply to everyone one else as well judging from 30+ year of experience in R&D.

the best logo is the simple one. this thing isn't a logo, it's a mess a beginner would come up with.

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:Skywriter:

DECUS Member 368596
Quote:
that is the ugliest damn logo i ever saw. poor DEC what happened to you...
the best logo is the simple one. this thing isn't a logo, it's a mess a beginner would come up with.

Skywriter loves grin as always :)

Skywriter's critics reminds me our famous designer Artemiy Lebedev:
Here are examples. Click "commentary" to show critics.

http://translate.googleusercontent.com/ ... 0P6kKW-3pg

http://translate.googleusercontent.com/ ... bjmjfL5rxA

http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... 010/07/02/

http://translate.googleusercontent.com/ ... b2WGtgPIXA

http://translate.googleusercontent.com/ ... Z3HMhoNgrQ

http://translate.googleusercontent.com/ ... I5ZMPE4M8g

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:rx2600: ( CHNPP node), custom build PC ( ducksta r host), one dead PowerBook G4 ( nokacheflush host)

More info at my web page!
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media ... 68077.html

$35 for the swoosh is a good deal.

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:Onyx: (Maradona) :Octane: (DavidVilla) A1186 (Xavi)
A1370 (Messi) dp43tf (Puyol) A1387 (Abidal) A1408 (Guardiola)

"InfiniteReality Graphics - Power Through Complexity"
I reackon they should've returned to "Albert" the Cheshire cat from the early VMS days. :) That warms my heart.

Did RSX-11/RSTS-E have a mascot?

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Al Boyanich
adb -w -P "world> " -k /dev/meta/galaxy/ksyms /dev/god/brain
I think I heard rumors of a bulldog for one of the PDP OSes. Perhaps in reaction to Albert.

Anyone know of somewhere online where they have the logos in bigger files than the openvmshobbyist.org does?

_________________
Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!

Systems available for remote access on request.

:Indigo: :Octane: :Indigo2: :Indigo2IMP: :Indy: :PI: :O200: :ChallengeL: :O2000R: (single-CM)
Ha! you're right. RSTS .. hurrah google. The bulldog was the key.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSTS/E

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Al Boyanich
adb -w -P "world> " -k /dev/meta/galaxy/ksyms /dev/god/brain
Interesting console... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rsts_V10.1.png (this picture was at the top of the above mentioned wikipedia article at the time of my looking)

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:Octane: halo , oct ane
N.B.: I tend to talk out of my ass. Do not take it too seriously.
If that's their console then it isn't "interesting" so much as a good exhibition of many of the things that are wrong with UI design now.

_________________
Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!

Systems available for remote access on request.

:Indigo: :Octane: :Indigo2: :Indigo2IMP: :Indy: :PI: :O200: :ChallengeL: :O2000R: (single-CM)
Hi Sir Duck!

Yeah.. what is the deal with that console? Guessing it's just a wallpaper in the background and some punter's project looking glass desktop? ..or am I completely wrong?

Al

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Al Boyanich
adb -w -P "world> " -k /dev/meta/galaxy/ksyms /dev/god/brain
uridium wrote:
Hi Sir Duck!

Yeah.. what is the deal with that console? Guessing it's just a wallpaper in the background and some punter's project looking glass desktop? ..or am I completely wrong?

Al


Sodomy Non Sapiens. VMS is NMF :-)

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:Octane: halo , oct ane
N.B.: I tend to talk out of my ass. Do not take it too seriously.
[/quote]

Sodomy Non Sapiens. VMS is NMF :-) [/quote]

What's all that about?

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Al Boyanich
adb -w -P "world> " -k /dev/meta/galaxy/ksyms /dev/god/brain