Note: I want to say upfront that we are not affiliated with HELLOTUX in any way whatsoever. We do not gain any monetary value from someone shopping at HELLOTUX. This is just passing along information on what we think is a pretty cool way to show your love for KDE and various KDE distributions. Now on with it already!
While checking out my Twitter feed today, I came across a Tweet posted by Jonathan Riddell from KDE Neon that showcased some fine-looking sweatshirts from a proprietor I had not heard of before. Or if I had, I certainly hadn't forgotten about at some point. What I found was a pretty large selection of KDE and Linux-Centric apparel that I thought was worth writing about and passing on to you, our dear readers.
For those who may not know, including myself until recently, HELLOTUX is a designer, manufacturer, and distributor of open source software-based clothing and apparel. On the "Why We Do" page (a fancy way of saying about), the site's owner, Gábor Kum states:
"We believe that free and open source software is better than proprietary. We also believe that we can change how people use technology. If you are the kind of person who likes freedom and fun, promote free software with us!Based in Hungary, and selling apparel for many years now - since 2002! - HELLOTUX seems like a worthy business to throw some hard-earned shekels at, or whatever your local currency happens to be. What better way the TV show others your passion for open source software than to wear some fine threads that state that fact?
HELLOTUX is a family business of Gábor Kum, a Linux system administrator and a software developer, a Linux user since 1999. His wife Maria, his son Viktor and his daughter are Linux users too.
We made our first Linux shirts 17 years ago, in 2002 and had various t-shirt projects in cooperation with the Hungarian Linux community and with Linux portals. In 2009 we decided to open PingvinBolt, our Hungarian Linux t-shirt shop, and about one year later, our international one, HELLOTUX."
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| The @KDENeon Tweet Showing some stylish threads branding the KDENeon logo |
Selection
Current offerings include a selection of men's and women's t-shirts and sweatshirts bearing various Linux and open source logos. Of note to our readers will be the availability of KDE, KDE Neon, Kubuntu, Manjaro, openSuse, Arch, Fedora, and Gentoo logos, among others.
The site seems to offer shipping worldwide, and I was very surprised to learn that shipping to the United States was only $8! Although listed as a promotional rate, I'm still impressed that such a reasonable cost would be incurred to have it shipped to those of us here in the states.
Fun Facts
Some fun facts I discovered when perusing the HELLOTUX website:
- All of the HELLOTUX items are designed and manufactured using open source software whenever possible.
"When making patterns for these machines, you usually need a lot of proprietary software, and almost all of them are running under Microsoft Windows. We solved this problem with Wine and a machine-independent software from a small company. It is not free, but at least we are able to use it under Linux, and we believe it is a much better solution. Everything else we use is fully free software."
- They give back to the community in the form of monetary (or other) donations for each item sold with a particular logo
- Where else can you get an Amarok shirt? (Seriously!) - Which begs the question: does the money go to KDE or to the Amarok developers themselves if someone should buy an Amarok shirt? 🤔
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| Yes, you can seriously get a green Amarok shirt from HELLOTUX |
Have you checked out HELLOTUX? If so, do let us know how the experience was. Also, if anyone is feeling particularly generous with their cash, feel free to throw me a shirt! I will wear it proudly and post a picture on the blog and Twitter should someone feel generous enough to send me one.
Also, if you have a KDE-themed HELLOTUX shirt, send us a pic on Twitter and we'll showcase it for you!
You can check out HELLOTUX here.
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