What is this page?
As the writer of this page, Sinclair-Speccy, I have been in the OS-tan fandom for roughly 5 years at this time so I guess you can say I have been in it for a little while now. Those 5 years have been a wild ride because I have been part of 3 communities that each had their own pros and cons so lot of what is going to be written here and the subsections is based on personal experience from the 3 places.
This page was actually originally the design philosophy page which covered how I designed my characters but I wanted to give it a overhaul after I found my old guide related to fanons... which in itself was at another community in the first place but then my version was replaced with someone else's...
Though now I am using this page as more of an explanation of some stuff from observing others in regards to making characters.
The whole "story" or whatever you wish to call it
When I first discovered OS-tans, I was mainly drawn to their designs and personalities. I didn’t really think about whether they accurately represented their respective operating systems. Years later, in 2024, I came to the realisation that characters like Vistake, Homeko, and even CE-tan don’t embody their OSes in the same way that more iconic ones like Me-tan, 2k-tan, and XP Pro-tan do.
Take Vistake, for example: An artist who hates god paints and has a screw in her forehead. It’s amusing, but what do screws and artists really have to do with Windows Vista? Or Visbou, a ninja? Then there's Homeko, whose fujoshi personality has little to do with Windows XP Home. CE-tan’s suggestive art and depictions certainly don’t align with Windows CE’s nature either. These traits have no real connection to the systems themselves. And yet despite this, people love these characters both within Futaba and outside of Futaba. Artists continue to draw them and fans embrace them as the OS-tans for these operating systems.
These characters often reflect the personal interests and preferences of their creators rather than the history or technical details of the OS. And that’s okay!
Outside of Futaba the same thing happens with some OS-tans not representing their system at all and instead mirroring the personalities or aesthetics that appeal to the artist.
I used to be someone who thought certain characters were "better" because they "represented the OS better." I never argued about it, but I did fall into that mindset, influenced by others in the fandom who pointed these things out. Over time, I grew out of this mindset by observing how people designed their characters with more creative freedom. For example, I saw one person create a character that didn’t reference an OS’s GUI at all. This character was white like a ghost despite being for a Windows OS with colour. And then there’s Wintel Miku, a character from 1999 whose design has no clear connection to the OSes she’s meant to represent, that being Windows NT 4.0, Windows 95 and 98.
So, is there a "right way" to design OS-tan characters? I don’t think so. If you’re making your own character, the best approach is to do what you want to do. Sure, you can follow the OS’s GUI and history if that’s your thing, or you can take liberties and make something entirely unique. There are guides out there that suggest how to design characters, and while they’re helpful, they should be seen as starting points. The most important thing is to enjoy the process and create something that resonates with you.
Want to make more than one character for an OS with multiple versions? Go for it! Take Windows 98 as an example: we have 98-tan and 98SE-tan. While both are based on the same core OS, their personalities and designs differ.
What matters most is that you, the reader, enjoy your characters.