The OS-tan is an Internet meme that originated within the Japanese Futaba Channel. The OS-tan are the moe anthropomorphism/personification of several operating systems by heterogeneous amateur Japanese artists. The OS-tan are typically depicted as women, with the OS-tan representative of Microsoft Windows operating systems usually depicted as sisters of varying ages. The -tan element in the term is a hypocoristic suffix from Japanese.
Though initially appearing only in fan work, the OS-tan proved popular enough that Microsoft branches in Singapore and Taiwan used the OS-tan concept as the basis for ad campaigns for Internet Explorer and Microsoft Silverlight, respectively.
History
The concept of the OS-tan is reported to have begun as a personification of the common perception of Windows Me (Released in 2000 by Microsoft as the 9x counterpart to Windows 2000) as unstable and prone to frequent crashes. Discussions on Futaba Channel likened this to the stereotype of a fickle, troublesome girl and as this personification expanded Me-tan was created and followed by the other characters. One of the early works to predominantly feature the OS-tan was an interactive Flash animation showing a possible intro to an imaginary anime show known as Trouble Windows. A fansub of this was eventually created and is partly responsible for the spread of the OS-tan to English language imageboards.The OS-tan is not an original concept and are pre-dated by Toy's iMac Girl, who was featured on a series of desktops released between August 1998 and March 1999.
Commercial products
Ohzora Publishing produced one book based on OS-tan characters, titled Trouble Windows OS-tan FanBook (とらぶる・うぃんどうず OSたんファンブック).
