whats with the logo?

[Chymera]

what does the debian logo represent?

[saphil]

Unending controversy. :-)
http://wiki.debian.org/ProposedTrademarkPolicy
The basis of other things
http://www.userlinux.com/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?IanEpperson/Logos
That swirl is how water goes down a drain in the northern hemisphere...
Maybe the question "What does Debian represent" would bear more fruit
http://www.debian.org/vote/2005/platforms/mjg59

Debian was begun in August 1993 by Ian Murdock, as a new distribution which would be made openly, in the spirit of Linux and GNU. Debian was meant to be carefully and conscientiously put together, and to be maintained and supported with similar care. It started as a small, tightly-knit group of Free Software hackers, and gradually grew to become a large, well-organized community of developers and users. See the detailed history (http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/project-history/).
Since many people have asked, Debian is pronounced /ˈde.bi.ən/. It comes from the names of the creator of Debian, Ian Murdock, and his wife, Debra.
http://www.debian.org/intro/about

Does that help, or does it just make things worse? Seems like the original artist might know why they chose it. :confused:

[Chymera]

and why did the developers think a swirl would best represent them? or did they all initially believe that their work would go down the drain :lol:

[saphil]

Good question, and one that I don't have a good ansewer for. I know a couple of Debian people, but I have not been able to reach them for comment, nor am I sure that they would self-identify as debian developers. So the question remains unanswered, unless somebody wants to join the debian forum and ask there...

[rsambuca]

That swirl is how water goes down a drain in the northern hemisphere...
Does that help, or does it just make things worse? Seems like the original artist might know why they chose it. :confused:

Actually, the debian swirl is clockwise towards the center. In the northern hemisphere the motion of a drain is counter-clockwise into the center.

EDIT: Actually, I was thinking of low-pressure weather systems like hurricanes and the coriolis effect. In this case, the flow of the hurricane winds and cloud patterns is indeed counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere. Drains, on the other hand, can go in either direction whether you are in the northern or southern hemisphere. Sink and toilet drains are much too small for the coriolis force to have any effect what-so-ever. Thus, the determining factor in water drains direction is the design of the sink and drain!

[Chymera]

finally, i understand why they choose that logo... it all makes sense :grin:

[rabbitnightmare]

[Debian The Universal Operating System]
It represents the universe expanding as the community of Linux users expand ;):KS

[danny joe ritchie]

It means magic smoke, here is the link http://www.bluesock.org/~willg/blog/debian/index.html?page=2