The Linux folks have their penguin and the BSDers their daemon. Perl's got a camel, FSF fans have their gnu and OSI's got an open-source logo. What we haven't had, historically, is an emblem that represents the entire hacker community of which all these groups are parts. This is a proposal that we adopt one — the glider pattern from the Game of Life.

About half the hackers this idea was alpha-tested on instantaneously said "Wow! Cool!" without needing any further explanation. If you don't know what a glider is, or why it would make a good emblem, or if you're dubious about having an emblem at all, read the FAQs page.

What will I be saying if I display it?

When you put the glider emblem on your web page, or wear it on clothing, or display it in some other way, you are visibly associating yourself with the hacker culture. This is not quite the same thing as claiming to be a hacker yourself — that is a title of honor that generally has to be conferred by others rather than self-assumed. But by using this emblem, you express sympathy with hackers' goals, hackers' values, and the hacker way of living. See the FAQs page for further discussion.

Yes, as of a mere four days after this proposal was floated, there are mugs and T-shirts.. Please note that I had nothing to do with this and I'm not getting a cut; in fact, proceeds are going to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Now there's a second source with different designs.

Who should not use this emblem?

If you break into other peoples' computers, those of us the emblem was invented for do not want you displaying it. Go invent your own emblem. We'll find some way to shame and reject you publicly if you mess with ours.

I used to have a prohibition against commercial use here. A number of people have argued convincingly that this is impractical and perhaps unfair. Keep it tasteful, or you will be flamed.

How can I use it?

The glider is not copyrighted or trademarked. The recommended way to use it is on a web page, with an image and a link back to either this page or direct to How To Become A Hacker. Here is a snippet of XHTML you can paste into a page.

<a href='http://www.catb.org/hacker-emblem/'>
<img src='http://www.catb.org/hacker-emblem/glider.png' alt='hacker emblem' /></a>

Here's what it will look like:

Feel free to enlarge or shrink the image. This PNG file was generated from PIC source and then half-sized. You can also download an SVG version, or an .ico version.

More variants for your enjoyment:

Here's the ASCII-art version:

.O.
..O
OOO