I'm one of those people who didn't even know that the logo was supposed to be a 'circle of friends', but like I said in a comment to someone else, I use Kubuntu and its logo is even more difficult to make out as a 'circle of friends'.

Luckily, there are lots of different Linux distributions out there, for everyone's tastes and needs, but I can sympathize with you for your frustrations with the 'Ubuntu Powers'...