Having a label beside the Deskbar logo would require testing with all supported languages, ensuring that the text remains on a single line and readable. That is, unless the plan is to just have Haiku as the label text.
Can you run things one time, first session after install? Get an animated character with a big hand to pop up from the vicinity of the Quick Tour script, and drift over to the feather and operate that thing.
A M E N !!! H A L L E L U J A H !!!
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When I first used BeOS (I pronounce “OS” as a single word, not two letters, but only in this case, oddly enough. Every other OS I pronounce the two letters individually), it was on my Power Macintosh 8500/120. So much fun! I came up with a webpage, back then, I started with:
“Why just be cool, when you can… BeOSome!”
I really wish Be hadn’t dropped the ball so much that it killed them… I remember the fun and excitement of Wildcard Software and other software companies (I remember LeBuzz Radio!) coming onboard. I really thought we were gonna have a new platform we could be proud to run! And then… they dropped the BeBox… and then they switched to Intel… and then… they died. And 20+ years later, we have bickering between developers of a BeOS child that hasn’t even left Beta! WHY?!?
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And 20+ years later, we have bickering between developers of a BeOS child that hasn’t even left Beta! WHY?!?
People are prone to bikeshedding. The leaf is the least important thing of the whole OS, yet there are already 125 posts in this thread.
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I know what its SUPPOSED to be, but it rolls off my tongue easier that way. Saying it the “proper” way sounds too stilted to me. Too lengthy, for some reason. And calling it “THE Be OS” really just stilted it beyond belief, to me! But BeOS is dead, so no worries nowadays. Now we just gotta get people knowing the difference between Haiku (Inc.) and Haiku (OS), without actually calling it Haiku(OS)! 
Interesting (but smart move)… this editor actually changes any reference of Haiku(OS) to just Haiku! I have to add the parentheses to actually make it show up! Otherwise it’s just referred to as Haiku! Good work, whoever did that!
I was referring to the argument between PulkoMandy and Cocobean, most recently. But arguing between ANY developers (specified as such or not) is just sapping what little energy exists. It’s politics, at the end of the day. And humans are prone to defending their little sacred cows. Making mountains out of molehills and the like.
As for me, I’d like to just finally be able to download and install Haiku R1. I mean, isn’t 20+ years long enough? Ugh! I’ll be lucky if Haiku R1 is available before Jesus returns!
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Unfortunately, a LOT of audio software has gone flat and more is continuing to go flat. I hate it.
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Not that anyone cares, but… all this time, I thought it was a feather too and have never liked the off-centered positioning.
I don’t use the Deskbar in the default block mode on the side. I put it along the bottom. The thing is analogous to the Windows task bar or the Apple menu bar for me. On Mac OS, it’s “click the Apple menu”. In Haiku, it should be “click the Haiku menu”. Problem is, it looks like a decoration in the default placement.
And the reason you and I and I’m sure a lot of other people thought it was a feather was because… (drum roll, please)… it’s BLUE! There are blue FEATHERS, but not blue LEAVES! Someone show me a real, blue leaf, please! Something that will actually make this choice of color actually make sense. And, the cuts in the leaf, look more like spaces in a feather. Green and amber and yellow and orange and brown are the colors of leaves… not blue!
[rant deactivated…]
That being said… it is what it is and it’s been that way since nigh the beginning, so it intrinsically represents Haiku’s menu, regardless if we agree with the image color or not. I think there are two variations of the Haiku menu that have been offered that I would “prefer” (because they would completely eliminate ANY question or doubt what was being represented), but… it 'tis what it is. And, like Apple… “Haiku will do what Haiku will do”. 
Don’t stop there : imagine that
→ the Deskbar on 1st of April goes down
→ the logo changes to 'Start’ with a handwriting, highlighting colour “again” over on it !..
Well…if Haiku IS a ‘continuation’ of BeOS, then why doesn’t it say ‘HAIKU’, instead of that blue feather/leaf thing! 
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That Chagall fellow probably hasn’t seen a real horse in his life… 
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I’m somewhat colour-blind myself, but …
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Another kind of “H” for Haiku’s apps menu:
(Pisces zodiac sign)
or, more different leafs:
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I did a little experiment recently. I asked my wife to use Haiku for her daily computer activities, without me explaining anything unless it is absolutely necessary. She is not exactly computer illiterate, but she isn’t interested and just uses a computer when she has to for her job plus occasionally browsing news - and that’s it. She definitely qualifies for a “computer newbie”, except she will stay in that status forever because she just doesn’t care about computing - which is unthinkable for me, but people are different.
At work, she uses Window$ (sad but true), but at home she uses a GNU/Linux non-systemd distribution I installed for her, running XFCE as a desktop. Normally, she would deny to try anything else (because, again, she doesn’t care), but she likes Haiku poems so the name of the OS itself helped convincing her easily.
I can tell you, it was rather easy for her to find her way on Haiku. Much easier than what I expected. First impression was “I like the logo and the colors of the desktop”. I don’t think it took her more than 5 seconds to find the leaf button, even though she is used to XFCE’s “Start-like” button at the bottom-left. She had some “problems”, but the leaf was not one of them. She was looking for Firefox, didn’t find it, so she asked about it. I told her “find Falcon and use that one instead” (since I thought that would be easier for her). She found it easily, browsed some medical sites, downloaded a pdf file and read it, as she normally does. She sent an email, and even played Mahjong for a while (the only game she would ever play).
This pretty much summarizes her daily computer activities, and she did them all without issues, other than the different window buttons, the default file manager (which she didn’t like), and a few other really minor issues.
If the leaf button was not a problem at all for such a person, I don’t know what are we talking about in this thread…
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This is my take. Put the Haiku name logo on that button and be done with it. Hell, move the default Deskbar position to the bottom of the screen and accept that it’s a Windows Taskbar clone, and be done with that too.
it certainly isn’t, if you use the “expander” mode where you can have a list of windows for each app. Sadly, some other devs are stronly opposed to enabling this by default (which is why we have settings for these things).
The logo has a big impact on the atmosphere and aura of the desktop environment so it’s important.
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