So, what is the deal with the Linux Penguin?!
Well, if haven't inflicted upon you in person the stories of the origin on the Linux penguin, I decided that I should cover my bases by putting this little blurb up on my website. Read on, and enjoy!
The short story is that Linus Torvalds (the creator of the original Linux kernel, and the "benevolent dictator" of the kernel sourcetree) decided that Linux needed a mascot. A number of lively and spirited discussion on various USENet groups ensued. Utimately, Linus decided on the Penguin, and Larry Ewing drew one up, Open Sourced it, and the rest, as they say, is history.
So, why a penguin?
"I always felt that the Linux logo should be something fun and something you can identify with," Torvalds explained in an e-mail interview. "And being fun and friendly pretty much means that you have an animal logo.". So then the question became "Which animal"? Among the finalists were a Platypus, a Fox, an Albatross, and an Eagle. However, Linus was definitely in favor of the penguin. And not just any penguin: He wanted a penguin that looked contented and plump. "Not fat, but you should be able to see that it's sitting down because it's really too stuffed to stand up. Think 'bean bag' here," wrote Torvalds on hte subject in an email in 1996.
A contest was held to choose the mascot. At the time, Larry Ewing was a 22 year old student at Texas A&M University working toward an electrical engineering degree. He read about the contest on the Linux Kernel Mailing List while working at the Institute of Scientific Computation. Ewing decided that drawign a penguin was a much better pursuit at Finals time than actually studying for his exams, so he drew one up and entered it.
He drew Tux (as the penguin became known -- in fact, the name is a little known acronym for Torvalds UniX) using The Gimp, a free and Open Source image manipulation program. And, in true Open Source spirit, he then turned his creation loose. As a result, there are penguins everywhere; on billboards, coffee cups, stickers, case badges, even a racecar (which incidentally, we sponsor!).