[obol] Opensource Gulls

[Cindy Ashy]

This may be a bit off-topic but it does have relevancy to OBOL larophiles (I
know some of you just don't want to fess up and others are lurking) and people
like me who have been watching the Western Gulls on the coast for the last few
months mate, build nests, lay eggs, incubate, and finally the emergence of
those cute little chicks and all that interesting parental behavior.

I'm a fan of the opensource software concept and I'm currenting looking into
using Openoffice (very similar to Microsoft Office). The image on their
homepage certainly won me over and I think some of you may find it interesting
as well:

http://www.openoffice.org

If you want to read about the evolution of this image (and why) from eggs to
cracked eggs to the gull emerging:

http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=53997

Evidently there was quite a discussion on it and also speculation for months as
to what would hatch out...dinosaurs, penguins, gull-penguin hybrid (Tux being
the Dad), gull chicks (but they thought chicks might portray a "negative" image
of a product too much in its infancy)...they ended up using a
"confident-looking" juvenile gull.

Anyway, a product (free and multiplatform) that uses gulls in its logo,
throughout its software interface, and in its graphic PR campaign gets brownie
points with me.

Cindy Ashy

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