Linux penguin - Definition

This article is about the Linux mascot. For the formalwear, see tuxedo.

The concepts behind Tux, the Linux mascot, were developed in email exchanges on a public mailing list.

Tux is the official mascot of the Linux operating system. Tux, created by Larry Ewing (http://primates.ximian.com/~lewing/) in 1996, is a chubby penguin that looks content and satiated. The concept of the Linux mascot being a penguin came from Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux kernel.

It is sometimes claimed that the name was derived from Torvalds UniX, a name suggested by James Hughes, rather than the explanation that penguins look vaguely as if they are wearing a tuxedo.

Tux was designed for a Linux logo contest. Pictures of some of the other contestants can be found at The Linux Logo Competition site (http://www.cs.earlham.edu/~jeremiah/linux-pix/linux-logo.html). The winning logo was created by Larry Ewing using the GIMP (a free software graphics package) and was released by him under the following condition:

Permission to use and/or modify this image is granted provided you acknowledge me lewing@isc.tamu.edu and The GIMP if someone asks. [1] (http://www.isc.tamu.edu/~lewing/linux/)

According to Jeff Ayers, Linus Torvalds had a "fixation for flightless, fat waterfowl" and Torvalds claims to have contracted "penguinitis" after being gently nibbled by a penguin: "Penguinitis makes you stay awake at nights just thinking about penguins and feeling great love towards them." Torvalds' supposed illness is of course a joke, but he really was bitten by a Little Penguin on a visit to Canberra [2] (http://www.linux.org.au/org/penguin.phtml). Torvalds was looking for something fun and sympathetic to associate with Linux, and a slightly fat penguin sitting down after having had a great meal perfectly fit the bill.

Tux has become an icon for the Linux and Open Source community, with one British Linux user group adopting a penguin at Bristol Zoo. He is much more famous than his big friend, GNU, a peaceful and shy gnu that represents the GNU Project.

Tux, in the form of the PaX logo

He is often dressed or portrayed differently, depending on context; for example, when representing the PaX security algorithm, he wears a helmet and brandishes an axe and shield, and his eyes are red.

Tux is the star of a Linux game called Tux Racer, in which the user guides Tux down a variety of different icy hills on his belly, trying to catch herring and beat the time limit. Tux is also a character in the Web comic, User Friendly.

In some Linux distributions, Tux greets the user during booting, with multi-processor systems displaying multiple tuxes.

TUX is also the name of Linux kernel-based web server, which is able to serve static web pages much faster than traditional servers like Apache HTTP Server. This piece of software is maintained by Red Hat [3] (http://people.redhat.com/mingo/TUX-patches/).

Tributes to Tux

• Ted the penguin is a character in the popular Ctrl Alt Del (webcomic). Ted, as the pet of the only Linux guru in the strip is clearly a tribute to Tux.

External links

• Linux 2.0 Penguins (http://www.isc.tamu.edu/~lewing/linux/) (Larry Ewing)
• A complete history of Tux (http://www.sjbaker.org/tux/)
• The LWN Penguin Gallery (http://lwn.net/Gallery/)
• Wired News story on Tux (http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,42209,00.html)
• A Tux Gallery (http://www.michael-prokop.at/gallery/tux.html)
• A Big Everaldo Tux Gallery on Crystal XP (http://tux.crystalxp.net)