Tux the Penguin is the official emblem of
Linux, This eventuated after a logo contest in 1996,
during which Linus Torvalds endorsed the idea of a penguin logo in a couple
of famously funny
postings. Linus explained that he was once bitten by a killer
penguin in Australia and has felt a special affinity for the species ever
since. (Linus has since admitted that he was also thinking of Feathers
McGraw, the evil-genius penguin jewel thief who appeared in a Wallace &
Grommit feature cartoon, The Wrong Trousers.)
Larry Ewing
designed the official Tux logo. It has proved a wise choice,
amenable to hundreds of recognizable variations used as emblems of
Linux-related projects, products, and user groups. In fact, Tux has spawned
an entire mythology, of which the Gospel According to
Tux and the mock-epic poem Tuxowolf are
among the best-known examples.
There is a ‘real’ Tux — a black-footed penguin
resident at the Bristol Zoo. Several friends of Linux bought a zoo
sponsorship for Linus as a birthday present in 1996.
