Introduction: Difference between revisions

The '''OS-tans''' (OS??) are an Internet phenomenon that started on [[Futaba Channel]]; the '''OS-tan''' or simply '''OS Girls''' are the personification of several operating systems by various amateur Japanese artists. Although a pure fan creation, the appearance of each OS Girl is generally consistent across artists. The OS Girls are typically depicted as women and usually depicted as sisters of varying ages.

As those stories being passed, learned, taught, and used for amusement, etc. It is  adapted notably in cartoons. For example, in anime and manga where abiotic materials would physically transform into a human being or even so, it could just be easily cosplayed by a certain person.  

Some anonymous [[Futaba]] artist/s introduced a setting on its story where a [[Toshiaki]] owns a PC. Then they, all of a sudden included a group of women in which they personify every operating system he (''Toshiaki'') owns, in which also they didn't gave an explanation on how were they formed or did appeared or born in the setting. These group of women are the [[List of OS-tans|OS-Tans]]. The first batch of OS-tans created are all personifying a series of Windows OS, which means they are portrayed as sisters from each other. The series of Windows OS that was personified includes [[Windows_3.1|3.1]], [[NT-tan|NT]], [[95-tan|95]], [[CE-tan|CE]], [[InuT-tan|NT Workstation]], [[98-tan_and_98SE-tan|98  98SE]], [[Me-tan|ME]], [[2k-tan|2000]], [[XP_Family|XP]] and [[2003_Server|Server 2003]]. The OS-tans obviously considers ''Toshiaki'' their master. They live on a house with their master. They almost have the traits of the operating system they respectively represent. Not only do they help their master on maintaining things that are technically related to computers, but they also do his chores and obligations around the house. That setting on those stories became temporary at first, until Futaba artists accepted it and followed popularly.

Other than the Windows sisters, other operating system such as [[MacOS]], [[Linux]], and [[Lindows|Linspire]] were also given a personification and commonly appeared with the Windows sisters at that time. Followed by the personification of [[OS9|MacOS9]] along with the original design for the personification of MacOS converted into being MacOSX (''not to be confused with +nijiura+ concept of OSX catgirls, [http://ostan-collections.net/wiki/Introduction#.2BNijiura.2B See Below]''). Currently so as [[Vistan|Vista]] as well. Futaba artist also started to draw male counterparts at that time. They are known as the [[OS-kuns]] (OS君). Although some non-OS male characters exist for programs and hardware. For example, [[Norton Antivirus]] is usually portrayed as a creepy looking, possibly lecherous old doctor. Futaba also includes their own memes to be shown along with the OS-tans. Most notable memes includes [[Yamada]], [[WE|WE (Taeko)]] and [[Pizza|Pizza-tan]].

+Nijiura+ produced their own concept of MacOSX. Since Futaba's concept is the conversion from the personification of [[MacOS]], +Nijiura+ 's concept was to expand it into every different big cat given codenames such as '''''[[OSX_Cheetah|Cheetah]], [[OSX_Puma|Puma]], [[OSX_Jaguar|Jaguar]], [[OSX_Panther|Panther]], [[OSX_Tiger|Tiger]]''''' and soon to be '''''[[OSX_Leopard|Leopard]]'''''. Almost same applies to their own concept of [[Vistan| Windows Vista]], in which designs have been expanded into Vista's several editions such as '''''Ultimate, Home Premium, Home Basic, Bussiness''''' and '''''Enterprise'''''.

There are still illustrations, drawings, flash animations, videos etc. which related to OS-Tans that continues being posted in the internet. In which it gave more exposure to the viewers outside Japan, and because of that, contributions about OS-tans coming from English-speaking imageboards and websites came to grow. Most notable example is [http://www.jkhp.it/OS-tan/ Juzo-kun's renditions of Linux distros wallpapers].  While imageboards such as [http://4chan.org 4chan], [http://wakachan.org/os wakachan] and [http://iichan.net idlechan] gave English translations on some comics.

|[http://ostan-collections.net OS-Tan Collections] is an English speaking themed website that deals with OS-tans which is open for all OS-tan viewers around the Internet. Artists from OS-Tan Collections not only includes Futaba and +Nijiura+'s OS-tan current line-up, but also other operating system they could name of and be given personification as well.

The Japanese suffix ''-tan'' (#12383;#12435;) is a child's mispronunciation of ''-chan'' (#12385;#12419;#12435;), an informal, intimate, and diminutive honorific suffix for a person used for friends, family, and pets. In this case, the mispronunciation is used intentionally to achieve the contrived cute or charming effect that is commonly associated with its use by young children. It is also sometimes added to the names of non-mascot characters, such as Sakura from ''Cardcaptor Sakura''. The personifications as a whole are commonly simply called mascots or mascot characters. The ''-tan'' suffix itself means nothing outside its role as an honorific and its implications of cuteness; it is never used on its own. Normal suffixes including ''-san'' and ''-chan'', are also used with OS Girls depending on the character and the speaker's preference, or omitted entirely. A common misconception is that ''-tan'' is a word meaning mascot or its addition to a name denotes a character being a mascot or personification. This is not so. Furthermore, the ''-tan'' suffix has largely fallen out of favor with the original creators of the OS Girls on Futaba Channel. Various and varying suffixes and names are used instead, for instance, the Windows 98 and Windows 98SE OS Girls are most commonly called Hacchan and Secchan.

Often the Windows girls are seen carrying scallions. This is a pun: a popular Japanese firewall program (NEGiES) sounds like the Japanese word for scallion (''negi'') so the OS-tan carry scallions around as shields or weapons. A scallion is also the icon used for the firewall itself.