Blog 12

Find out or make up story where Linux came up with the penguin as its “mascot”.

After a few years of Linux, Linus finally decided that they needed to have a logo. They had a contest to create the logo. For some reason it had to be an animal. A platypus, a fox, a shark, an eagle were some of the animals that were suggested. Linus was not happy with any of those and he mentioned he liked penguins. There were lots of stories about Linus being bitten by a penguin.

A young man by the name of Larry Ewing was picked as the winner of the contest. His creation was of a plump, contented and cute penguin. This penguin was named ‘Tux’. Supposedly the name does not come from the fact that it looks like he is wearing a tux but from Torvalds Unix. I know that’s what they say but, I don’t buy it. If you are using the first letter of Torvalds, then you would use the first letter of Unix. That’s TU, not tux. If you were using the first and the last letters it would be TsUx. So, I really think the black and white penguin had something to do with the name.

One of the big things about logo is that it is also, open source, like Linux. Anyone can change the graphic anyway they want as long as they give Larry Ewing and Linux the credit. The fact that Ewing used GIMP to create Tux.

Actually, I think it’s a great Border Collie name. I plan on using it someday when I have a boy that fits the name. Black with a white chest and black front legs maybe white front feet. Cute, huh, maybe even cuter than a penguin.