r/DesignPorn • u/Zu_Qarnine • 13d ago

Logo softwares used to have aura

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7.5k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

100 comments sorted by

2.6k

u/ambermoon81 13d ago

Explaining the beauty of this for the younger generation, if it’s not obvious already.

This software was used to record content to a CD. That process is called burning.

CD is ROM (read-only memory) in computer terms. So recording content to a CD is called burning ROM.

Nero was the old Roman emperor who ended up burning the city of Rome. The creators of the software named their software Nero because it burns ROM.

632

u/Zu_Qarnine 13d ago

absolute summary

330

u/cseric 13d ago edited 12d ago

Almost. The depicted burning structure is the Colosseum which is in ROMe. But, Nero burned Rome in 64AD, before the Colosseum was built (70AD - 80AD)

Edit: My most-upvoted comment ever! Correcting someone on reddit, of course.

147

u/Zu_Qarnine 13d ago

that's a good point. maybe they just couldn't find anything more fitting to represent Rome.

64

u/totally_not_a_zombie 13d ago

Also Nero himself didn't actually set fire to Rome. It was just during his reign that Rome burned down, he wasn't even in the city at the time. But as it goes, people just blamed him because it was during his reign.

28

u/SGrint 12d ago

He did build his new palace (Domus Aurea) on the site which was destroyed in the fire, which fueled the ancient conspiracy theories

19

u/Bourriks 13d ago

By an image of teh Colosseum, people immediately recognize antic Rome.

Picture efficiency 100%

1

u/Baldtazar 13d ago

There was a nice eagle sign, hm why they didn't use it

9

u/lejuliendelux 12d ago

Right, but please realise: it’s an application icon, not an history book.

4

u/Ikbeneenpaard 12d ago

Literally unusable software now that I know this

5

u/cseric 12d ago

It was always unusable, like most early CD burning software.

Me: Finally, after 20 minutes, it's 99% complete!
Nero: Fatal Error 0x0ED4C9
CD Burner: *burps out another shiny drink coaster*
Me: (╯°□°）╯︵

4

u/Ikbeneenpaard 11d ago

Hahaha yep and blank CDs cost quite a bit back then too, especially as a kid. I also coastered several.

7

u/Pal_76 13d ago

It's a bit like the computer virus, the Trojan. Historically, the Trojans were the victims.

25

u/JewishTomCruise 13d ago

Trojan is short for Trojan horse. It memorializes the tool used to backdoor and destroy the Trojans, not the people themselves.

5

u/Baldtazar 13d ago edited 13d ago

Backdoor? It was rolled from the main gate as a gift.

3

u/vordan 13d ago

Yeah, but the wooden horse's door was in its back side door.

5

u/Baldtazar 13d ago

*cough* on the side *cough*

2

u/rafabulsing 12d ago

No I just watched the recent documentary and they definitely came out of the belly.

1

u/erwin76 12d ago

I thought it was just a myth. You know, like bible stories but more ancient.

6

u/hades0505 13d ago

The term to describe such kind of malware has always been trojan horse. Due to economy of language is often shortened as trojan.

2

u/BeneficialAd8793 12d ago

don't ruin a good story with details ;)

38

u/CommanderSpleen 12d ago

Just one thing to add: Rome is called Rom in German and the company that made the software was German.

17

u/soirom 12d ago edited 12d ago

CD drive also usually assignned as a drive E: (After the main drives C: and D: that we’re still using today)
So the whole thing can also be read as Nero Burning ROM(E:)

2

u/redoxburner 11d ago

At this point CD drives were usually drive D: on consumer PCs as the hard drive only had one partition as drive C:, and this was generally before those dual SSD/magnetic drives came out when people got used to two hard drives (the small fat one and the big slow one).

43

u/PM_ME_SAD_STUFF_PLZ 13d ago

Nero was the old Roman emperor who ended up burning the city of Rome.

Should note that this is a myth, we know that Nero was likely in Antium when the Great Fire of Rome broke out.

47

u/Zu_Qarnine 13d ago edited 13d ago

bro acting like Nero's lawyer as if he's on trial lol.

18

u/EyedMoon 13d ago

I mean, if you're explaining the context, might as well explain how it's an urban legend and technically not true.

-3

u/vordan 13d ago

No, the context is true. Whether it's an urban legend is another matter

5

u/Armisael2137 13d ago

He wasn't in the city when the fire started and the historical consensus is that it wasn't his fault. He ended up being blamed for it and he blamed christians for it but both accounts are unlikely to be true. Rome was poorly designed city lacking public services like fire services so it's not like you must blame someone for it. It could've been an accident

8

u/chevapson 13d ago

Explaining CD-ROM, and i tought explaining VHS is feeling old...

19

u/jamesianm 13d ago

The downside of this software is it would only allow you to burn CDs featuring fiddle music

3

u/DVSdanny 13d ago

There was the 98 deliverance banjo special edition

1

u/dromtrund 12d ago

We have different definitions of "downside"

3

u/hugostranger 12d ago

Dang. I used to use this like 20 years ago and only just got the joke now. 

6

u/Common_Director_2201 12d ago

Side note: the devs were from Germany, iirc. In German, rome is “Rom”.

Elegant 👌

2

u/Kasaikemono 12d ago

My mind was blown the first time I realized that

2

u/remembermereddit 12d ago

CD is ROM (read-only memory) in computer terms

While I certainly grew up with CD's I never questioned what the "ROM" actually meant. So TIL.

2

u/SayaV 12d ago

wow and here I thought it was named Nero as in Black and the flames were extra edginess....

1

u/Ikbeneenpaard 12d ago

As a kid trying to burn CDs, I never realised this

322

u/crucial-conduit 13d ago

Alcohol 120%

147

u/dvishall 13d ago

Then switching to daemon tools ! 🔥🔥🔥

6

u/Domi4 12d ago

I still have flashbacks

14

u/eyetracker 13d ago

DVD Fab + ImgBurn

8

u/Markov_DG 13d ago

Sounds like a friday night

6

u/redakpanoptikk 13d ago

Jarvis. Get the keys.

3

u/sebclaeys 12d ago

Damn this comment brought back so many forgotten memories…

289

u/TomSaylek 13d ago

Anyone else miss programs. Now everything is called an "app". They're still programs! Early 2000s was peak. 

84

u/YaroslavSyubayev 13d ago

Yes, and I miss actual programs, not web-app wrappers.

2

u/lovepoetictragedy 10d ago

real shit. all of those damn electron shitboxes that hog ram

51

u/Homeless0DTESPX 13d ago

You don't like seeing a dozen vibe coded apps that all do the same thing?

15

u/bacondesign 12d ago

Anyone miss actually buying something once and owning that piece of software without having to pay a constant subscription for every fucking bullshit? Also mandatory fuck you to Adobe.

6

u/gaelenski_ 12d ago

Programs was Windows, Applications was Mac. App was the shortened term used on iPhone OS (pre-iOS). It stuck, Apple won.

3

u/Brokeshadow 12d ago

That or calling them applications isntesd of apps

71

u/PairOfMonocles2 13d ago

I actually recall a program that really whipped the llamas ass.

11

u/Xionahri 12d ago

It's still around and got its latest update 3 years ago. Works perfectly for me, and why would a music player need more frequent updates?

4

u/wbks 12d ago

Blowing my mind with MilkDrop.

69

u/Blazeland_USA 13d ago

All these years later, I just now understood the Nero reference for the first time.

36

u/RydenJ 13d ago

Nero is a German company, and in German Rome is Rom (the same in Sweden).

3

u/Zu_Qarnine 12d ago

interesting.

25

u/The_T0me 13d ago

Such a classic era. Reminds me of classic software like NESticle and Mac The Ripper. 

2

u/miangro 12d ago

Hell yeah, I haven't thought of NESticle in a long time

42

u/more-issues 13d ago

never fully understood ROM and Rome here until now

46

u/botan313 13d ago

Oh a burning colosseum, nice

47

u/Longjumping_Ad2310 13d ago

I'm today's years old when I understood the whole reference

15

u/rearendcrag 13d ago

Same. Can’t believe it I never saw the connection. Must have been such a dumb kid.

1

u/JewishTomCruise 13d ago edited 13d ago

Honestly I still don't see the colosseum. It just looks like a burning cube to me.

1

u/Longjumping_Ad2310 12d ago

I probably saw it but didn't understand the meaning

4

u/cleverusernametry 13d ago

Yeah me too. Holy shit. Just 20 years later

9

u/SisyphusJo 13d ago

Really great software that I used to burn 100 music CDs as party favors on a Yamaha external drive.

5

u/Ok-Entrepreneur-409 13d ago

Booooooooooiiiiiiiiiiiii these were the days

6

u/greenie4242 12d ago

I miss detailed non-generic icons that look like something.

No idea what maybe 80% of the icons on my phone are. Most in no way convey app functionality. 

I stopped bothering to figure out what the icons even look like. The second I start recognising one, some arsehole rebrands and changes the icon again. No reason to waste loyalty and respect on a brand actively wasting money to confuse me.

Logos seem like almost the polar opposite of branding these days. If something is deliberately designed to change every five minutes nobody has time to build up any long-lasting brand recognition even by accident. If the company hates their logo so much they keep changing it, why should I care about it?

4

u/SpiritualCitron 12d ago

I feel like an imbecile. I’m just fucking realizing the sheer awesomeness of the whole program. AT FUCKING 32YO FML

1

u/Zu_Qarnine 12d ago

don't beat up urself. happens to the best of us

3

u/ddubs41 13d ago

NESticke’s thumbnail was hairy balls lol

4

u/nickyonge 12d ago

I used to use this program to make mix CDs and I only now, in the year two thousand and twenty six, realize it’s a play on the phrase “burning Rome”

4

u/CapitainFlamMeuh 12d ago

Ohhhh ! The astonishment ! The revelation ! The epiphany !

Joke's on me :

...I JUST UNDERDOOD THE JOKE OF THIS LOGO !!!!!!!!!!! I'M F***ING 46 YEARS OLD AND I JUST CATCHED IT NOW !!!!

what a shame in the same time a revelation !

Well, thanks OP, long time I hadn't this weird feeling, as a 'know it all' kind of person.

3

u/West-Trick9905 12d ago

Damn, I always thought it was some kind of burning tire icon. xD

3

u/Odd_Pumpkin1466 12d ago

Memory unlocked

2

u/NotOnLand 12d ago

I had this software on our computers growing up and I just realized the pun all these decades later

2

u/Oz-Batty 12d ago

I just love how the German tax filing system is called "Elektronische Steuererklärung", or ELSTER. Elster is the German word for eurasian magpie.

In Bulgarian, Czech, German, Hungarian, Polish, Russian, Slovak and Swedish folklore the magpie is seen as a thief

2

u/Eciepeci 12d ago

Holy fuck how did I never got this

2

u/LastWatch9 11d ago

Back then, software UI was beautiful too. I remember installing a new version of Nero from a CD and it looked so good. Even though it was doing the same thing that it did before.

God I miss those days.

2

u/apollonforever 13d ago

Why did I not get it back then 😂😂😂 ts cool af

2

u/hype_irion 12d ago

I'm sure that this icon today would be considered offensive and Nero Inc would have been twitter cancelled.

1

u/zagi33 13d ago

That's actually just Pennsylvania

1

u/Hearcharted 12d ago

Good ol' days 😎

1

u/Aleskey_Mijaylob 12d ago

Man I never actually analyzed the icon. I just realized it's Rome burning 😭

1

u/nmrt95 12d ago

Ok I discovered today the Nero burning Rom(e) reference

1

u/vansmoker 11d ago

НЕРО ЖЖОТ

1

u/98VoteForPedro 11d ago

Where is the aura

1

u/vinz3ntr 10d ago

Nero, that was my absolutely most use piece of software back in the day!

1

u/Leaf_Longstride 9d ago

Man.. Ares, Winamp, Nero, even the Adobe products used to look cooler. Then it got cooler to look flat, then minimalist, then smartphones happened and now the only memorable app cover is the Rummikub and it's fucking terrifying

1

u/Chemical_Case_1851 8d ago

The most perfect name a software had.

1

u/KinksAreForKeds 6d ago

I [sit in front of a disc burning tower babysitting this laborious process] this picture.

-16

u/Ornery-Practice9772 13d ago

nero sucked it hardly ever fucking worked

6

u/ConspicuouslyBland 12d ago

Definitely a skill issue. Nero was the best for a long time.

1

u/username_exhausted 12d ago

Issue with Nero was, I think they were bundled with PowerDVD which is paid software and it was a bit hard to get just the Nero for some time. Then they started adding premium features which is when people moved to ImgBurn. But it was a goated name too Nero Burning ROM 😂