This profile was copied automatically from the old chat.
It all started with 'Troubled Windows.'
This false anime opening about an anthro version of Windows ME has created a rather impressive phenomenon.
As a result, girls based on Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems, as well as various other programs (and even viruses!) are running all over the place, getting into computer related mischief and generally mucking things up for everyone in sight. Oh, sure, one or two of them might have reasonable intentions, but most of them just want to cause trouble for their users or each other. Stories are told of households, wars, random death and destruction, and of course ecchi situations...
So, they're basically like real operating systems. Just cuter.
This is not the complete list of all of them! Rather, this is a list of the 'good' ones, in my opinion~ Essentially, the ones I want to play.
They're good for one-offs or groups. An amusing example would be a visit to the Windows household... though, you would probably be killed in short order.
Exhaustive profiles for each OS-Tan would take forever... instead, with the help of the magical internet, I'm posting smaller profiles and a miniature snapshot for each from the OS-Tan wiki... thanks, guys! (Note: In many cases, these small icons are the only reliable picture, and I want to keep them all in the same format/size for the moment~) The more common/popular the OS-Tan is, the longer the profile! Well, in most cases. It also has to do with how much is known about them, et cetera. Anyway! I'll slowly add my own profiles to them as I go, but this will do just to kick us off, I think.
In the Windows OS-Tan household, we have:
3.1-Tan
Windows 3.1-tan (3.1たん) is one of the less common Windows personifications. The first 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 that has more increasingly common 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.
NT-Tan
There are two mainstream personifications of Windows NT. The first NT-tan is depicted as a young woman (though her age range varies from child to adult depending on the artist) with purple hair (ranging from lilac to very dark) and blue eyes. Sometimes she is also portrayed as the mother of 2K-tan, Inu-T, and, less commonly, other NT releases.
Although usually seen as loving, sweet and motherly, a few artists' depictions show NT-tan as a bold...and sometimes crazed...warrior, shown with a bladed weapon. One such depiction shows her alongside a similarly-armed Windows 95-tan.
NT Workstation-Tan
Most depictions of Inu-T ("NT" has the romaji representation of "enu ti"—this sounds a lot like "inu ti", and "inu" is the Japanese word for dog.) show her as a young girl, with an endearing dog-like attitude, with carefree, sweet and spunky traits, even if she is a bit simple-minded. She is often shown as being daughterly and close with NT-tan. 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.
95-Tan
One of the more popular OS-tans, 95-tan is depicted as a traditional lady from the early modern era of Japan. This is much due to her status as an older version of "modern" Windows. 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.
95-tan's 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. While appearing to be one of the more stable OS-tans, she is also often depicted wielding a katana in an aggressive manner, usually toward the Mac-tans, but also when disciplining troublemakers within her own family. This symbolizes the fact 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.
CE-Tan
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 Sega Dreamcast console, there are several illustrations of CE standing upon or around the Dreamcast's "swirl" logo.
98-Tan and 98SE-Tan
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. The 98 Second Edition mascot normally has grey-blue hair and a green sailor school uniform with the letters SE on the front.
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.
Neptune-Tan and Odyssey-Tan
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.
ME-Tan
Me-tan is the more cutesy personification of the much maligned and infamously unreliable Windows Me Operating System and was the first OS-tan created. She is usually known as Me-tan, but is often called Emui-san. She was created by the one now called "ME-aki". ME-tan's appearance rarely varies and is instantly recognizable. She has green hair in long pigtails and wears a maid outfit with an exclamation mark badge on the front modeled after the Windows 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 or crowbar. In spite of, or perhaps due to, her pitiful plight, the clumsy ME-tan is one of the most beloved OS girls.
2K-Tan
The personification for Windows 2000 was one of the first characters created. A few variants exist, but the most common is 2k-tan, the personification for Windows 2000 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 often acts like the "older sister" or "dependable woman" among the Windows-tans and is one of the domain controllers for this reason. In addition, because of the greater stability of Win2K compared with WinME (which was released around the same time), 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.
Trivia - 2K-Tan owns a Scopedog/Berserga mix AT.
XP-Tan
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." Often considered shallow.
Homeko-Tan
The variant of XP-tan that represents Windows XP Home is known as "Homeko" has green hair that she wears in a short ponytail and wears two large XP-shaped hairclips that cover her ears. She is the sister of Saseko and Homeo.
She is characterized as a fujoshi and yaoi doujinshi artist who has an unhealthy fascination with her gender-confused brother Homeo. She is the female lead in the Homeo saga, providing a role as Homeo's muse and tormentor. Quite possibly the most perverted character in the saga, she is obsessed with yaoi fantasies.
XP Media Center-Tan
XP MCE-tan is a rarer variant representing Windows XP Media Center Edition, a version of the popular Windows XP operating system designed primarily for home entertainment purposes. Due to the higher hardware requirements, she is commonly depicted as being larger than XP Pro-tan.
There are a few variants of this design. One (shown above) depicts her as a blonde-haired woman with cat-eared orange headphones, glasses, and a green and orange stylized seifuku that bears a slight similarity to XP Pro-tan's. She usually wears a pendant bearing a Media Center icon over her chest, and has been depicted carrying a remote on occasion. Her disposition is often portrayed as cheerful, although images with a more nonchalant look exist as well.
2003 Server-Tan
2003 Server is often portrayed as being half-girl, half-fish, with an ethernet hub as a bonnet on her head. 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 (As another gag of the fact that she's a fish), 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.
Vista-Tan
"Vis-tan", as this character is usually known by among the OS-tan community, is the character personification of Microsoft’s Windows Vista Operating System. However, unlike its previous predecessors globally accepted common design, Vis-tan is one to not to have a set design that everyone accepts. The one above was chosen due to convenience and a general positive attitude towards the picture~
Next door, in the little DOS household, we have:
MS-DOS-Tan
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.
DOS/V-Tan
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 than her 'older' sister.
MSX-DOS-Tan
MSX-DOS is another variation on MS-DOS. She represents the Microsoft Japan version of DOS, MSX-DOS.
Over in the Macintosh household, we've got:
Mac OS-Tan
Mac OS-tan was perhaps the first commonly-known and widely-supported Mac-tan during the early days of the OS-tan phenomenon. Given the popularity of the Windows platform, it is likely that Mac OS-tan was simply meant to be a standalone personification of the Mac Operating System, in the same way that Linux-tan was meant to be a lump-sum of all Linux distributions. In early drawings, Mac-tan appears in her standard platinum-white body suit (alluding to the iMac/OSX design motif) but, also with a rainbow-colored apple on her head, a throwback to the classic Macintosh. Some manga strips also featured her battling against Windows 95-tan during the OS-tan Wars, during which time only the classic macs were available (System 7.5, for example).
Personality-wise, Mac OS-tan is short-tempered, and is known to throw memorable fits of insane rage when angered. Aside from her platinum-white bodysuit and apple adornment on her head, another memorable feature is the bomb she usually carries based on the standard Macintosh error dialog. She is frequently shown in pictures and comic strips trying to use these bombs against Windows-tans and other miscellaneous characters that annoy her (e.g., Toshiaki, the OSX-kuns). When offered appreciation, however, her temper subsides and she becomes relatively friendly, if perhaps a bit direct.
OS9-Tan
Mac OS 9 is currently the most common and adored MacOS girl. OS9-tan is the personification for Mac Operating System 9, better known as "Sonata", named after standard wallpaper for OS 9. 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, much due to the fact 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 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 oftenly be seen in ecchi situations in the Mac 4koma.
Leopard-Tan
Mac OS 10.5, known as "Leopard" is the latest version of the Mac OS and has a few different representations. Shown here is the most common, a teal-haired leopard girl with her hair usually in a ponytail with a black bow, wearing a futuristic outfit with a teal dress, silver boots and gloves and carries a Time Machine pocketwatch with her, which she uses for time traveling which she can also use to her advantage for warping from one place to another.
Cheetah-Tan
Unlike the Mac OSX-kuns, a concerted effort has been made to create unique personifications of each of the major OSX releases. The most recognized personificaion of OSX Cheetah depicts her as a purple-haired catgirl (not surprisingly, with Cheetah-marking), wearing an eye patch, a futuristic gray and black dress, and fishnet leggings. She is also the most well-endowed of the OSX sisters, perhaps owing to the doubled memory requirements relative to the era of her release date (64MB for Mac OS9, 128MB for Mac OSX Cheetah).
Puma-Tan
Unlike the Mac OSX-kuns, a concerted effort has been made to create unique personifications of each of the major OSX releases. The most recognized personificaion of OSX Puma depicts her as a young blue-haired, green-eyed catgirl (or "pumagirl"), wearing a sleeveless, white-collared black blouse decorated with a green ribbon bow and blue "X's". The addition of fluffy socks and penny loafers completes the likely-intentional resemblance to a middle or high school student.
Puma-tan is also not commonly drawn, but is depicted frequently-enough to piece together her personality as being shy, mousy and insecure. Given that OSX 10.1 was more stable than its predecessor and offered some much desired features, the only parallel that can be drawn would be to the criticism levied on Puma for being such a small and "timid" technological leap from Cheetah.
Panther-Tan
Personifying Apple's fourth major release of Mac OSX, Panther is easily recognized as being the only dark-skinned Mac-tan and in fact one of the few such OS-tans of color. This is due to the co-personification of the actual feline panther, hence the reason why nearly all proposed Panther-tan designs featured a dark-skinned character.
The depicted image is the most recognized of the OSX Panther-tan designs, in line with the other Nijiura.com OSX-tans by the same artists. Perhaps in part due to the greater refinement of the system, Panther-tan is depicted as an elegant and refined woman (in the same vein as Mac OS9-tan) with blue hair, orange eyes and black panther ears. She wears a blue, sleeveless, ballroom-style dress that drapes down to her feet and conceals her panther tail. In addition, she also wears gray opera length gloves and a red ascot tie adorned by a glass Apple logo.
Jaguar-Tan
While it's not clear whether initial OSX-tan designs specifically targeted the Jaguar release (the first to be marketed with the feline-inspired codename), the depicted design is at least the most recognized relative to the small Mac-tan fanbase.
The release of OSX Jaguar marks the start of the truly "stable" OSX platform, making it appropriate that OSX Jaguar-tan is the first among a subsequent lineage of self-confident catgirls ( Panther, Tiger-tan, etc.). Jaguar-tan is depicted as a mid-adolescent girl with bright red hair, blue eyes, and jaguar ears and tail. She wears a futuristic grey and beige dress and boots, as well as a black choker featuring the glass Apple logo. She's frequently depicted as friendly and outgoing, only slightly tamer than her spirited younger sister OSX Tiger-tan
Tiger-Tan
Representing the most iconic Mac OSX-tan to date, Tiger-tan personifies the fifth and most popular major release of Mac OSX. The system itself is the pinnacle of form and stability in the Mac OSX family, and has garnered much attention after being the first OSX version to be released for Intel Macs.
Tiger-tan is depicted as a young, friendly and very energetic woman with thick blonde hair held up by a black "X" shaped ribbon, blue (sometimes yellow) eyes, and a pair of tiger ears and tail. She wears an unusual hybrid between a black business suit (v-shaped collar and red tie featuring the X logo) and a black swimsuit, in addition to black arm-length gloves and full-sized leggings. The final appearance strikes as both futuristic (somewhat business-oriented) and revealing -- while the majority of known depictions feature her as a playful, spirited woman bursting with energy, some artists have drawn her in mellow and sexually-suggestive poses. Most recent designs feature a red tie with a white X, and sometimes a ring that connects the panties and the dress' top.
Of particular note is the concept that her system age and popularity makes her the "leader of the pack" of sorts, and has even been depicted comforting the two oldest members (Cheetah-tan and Puma-tan). And given the introduction of Boot Camp during the system's life, Tiger-tan is also considered to be friendlier and more diplomatic to the Windows-tans than any other Mac release before her.
Living by herself, we have:
Linux-Tan
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 GRUB (GRand Unified Bootloader: a bootmanager, which is most commonly used on Linux-systems), LILO (the traditional LInux-Loader) and GCC (the GNU Compiler Collection, which includes the C-compiler with which most of the Operating System was written) -- rather important applications on every GNU/Linux-system. The helmet and spear most likely reference the high level of attention to security (defensive helmet) and hacking (offensive spear) found in Linux applications.
And wandering about randomly plotting to undermine them all, we have:
Viru-Tan
Viru-tan(Also known as Viru-sama, or the 'Queen of Viruses') Is the unsurmountable Leader of the Virus-tans and is usually the head of operations when it comes to devising sinister plans against the OS-tans. Because of her position as leader of the Viruses, she is often depicted as being elegant, classy (though not so much as snobbish) and an elitist, which some may find strange, being she is often thought of as being a ruthless leader simply because she leads an army of troublemakers and miscreants. Unlike her many followers, Viru-tan is infact a personification for the concept of computer viruses, rather than the personification of an actual virus. In the beginning, Viru-tan was often depicted as a personification for ALL computer viruses, being she was the only Malware-tan in exsistance, however as other artists (such as Infinity Zero and Gussy Keniji) began creating virus-tans of their own, it was then decided that Viru-tan be appointed as the leader of the growing group of virus-tans, since she was around alot longer than most of the other viruses (IOW, she has seniority). Viru-tan usually has a spear-like weapon with her, which she uses when she's facing off against an OS, it is believed that the spear is able to transform into other objects as well. Viru-tan has several 'Elite' viruses by her side, referred to as 'Generals', these virus-tans are the ones whom she often associates with when it comes to 'serious business' (c)Brain-tan and MyDoom-tan being the highest ranking in this category. she has a loyal 'Bodyguard', known as Cerberus-tan, whom is usually (if not always) with in her prescense. It is apparent that she is indeed the strongest out of all her followers, most being limited to what OS they are able to infect in order to cause any real damage, Viru-tan however is able to hold her own against even the most recent of OS-tans such as Vista-tan and even Mac-tans, and goes about exploiting even their smallest vulnerabilites (since each OS-tan has her own 'flaws').
If you're interested in playing with an OS-Tan (or multiple), let me know, I'll try to figure something out.