EXEC

Character details

This character represents both the UNIVAC line of computers dating back to the UNIVAC I in 1951 up to the , and the EXEC operating system, even though the hardware and OS lines debuted years apart. She changed her name to EXEC-tan with the EXEC OS's debut in 1962.

EXEC is represented as a purple-haired woman in a Renaissance-style dress in the general colors of the UNIVAC machines. She has a lot of ruby jewelry which imitates the round, red lights and dials. Her hair is meters long and partly braided in a ponytail. Its extreme length is symbolic the high complexity of the UNIVAC machines. That symbolism is a bit outdated now since mainframe-tan characters even older than her, and representing even larger systems have been created, but this still remains.

Her hair cannot be cut because it is an extension of her brain and getting it cut would be painful and damaging to her intelligence, reflexes and other functions. To say the very least, it was a very unusual design quirk on the behalf of her creators. Cutting it short or shaving it off would kill her. And since her company has been long-gone, taken with them the only means to perform any kind of corrective surgery to fix her hair, she has to stay like that forever.

She is much too slow and old to handle basic tasks but is very kind, calm, wise and able to provide the voice of reason for the Vintage-tans she lives with. She was melancholy and felt like a useless burden because of her severe limitations but has cheered up since befriending GENIAC-tan, who grew up in the same time period as her (able to relate to her experiences) and bound by strings and limitations of her own.

She gladly volunteered to be GENIAC-tan's caregiver, simply needing to hold her handle and keep her company. And because of EXEC-tan's patience and motherly demeanor, she is also able to easily calm down GENIAC-tan and help her overcome her phobias. In return, EXEC-tan has cheered up, feeling useful and having a friend she can relate to.

History and background

She was created as purely hardware-based at first, since there were no OSes in existence when she was created. Her culture and upbringing were isolated, even by her contemporaries' standards then, but she quickly became well-known when her calculations were shown to correctly predict important outcomes -referencing the UNIVAC I correctly predicting the 1952 US election-. In 1962, she was cybernetically enhanced to become a hardware-OS hybrid, and changed her name to reflect this transformation.

EXEC was in service for close to 35 years before being discontinued. She has a much more advanced descendant, OS 2200, who was born circa 1967. She was jealous of her descendant for not having the technical constraints she has, but over time they got along. Her mandatory retirement came in 1986, when she was relocated to an isolated tower to be looked after by a few caregivers, because as oppressive as that was, her staff didn't want her to suffer as a wanderer due to obsolescence, and still believed she was socially superior to those minicomputer and home computer-tans, so she was not to mingle with them.

During the next nearly 20 years, during that time many major events including the deaths of some of her colleagues, the Unix Wars, the OS Wars, and founding of the Binteeji Renmei all passed her by. But she wasn't totally isolated from other computer-tans, since occasionally she was able to meet several of the 'lesser' computer-tans and invited them over in secrecy. This went on for years before getting caught. At first, her staff of caregivers were disappointed or outraged that EXEC was breaking a major social rule, but seeing that she was happier with her friends, her staff let her go with them and join the Binteeji Renmei.