- This article is about the Linux mascot. For the formalwear, see tuxedo.
Tux is the official mascot of the Linux operating system. Tux, created by Larry Ewing in 1996, is a chubby penguin that looks content and satisfied. 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. 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:
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Permission to use and/or modify this image is granted provided you acknowledge me [email protected] and The GIMP if someone asks. [1]
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]. 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.
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].
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.
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