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Thread: Tux the penguin

  1. #1

    Talking Tux the penguin

    Here's the story on Tux the Penguin. Untill today, I didn't even know that the penguin had a name.
    Any ways, on with the show. This article was taken from:
    http://www.wired.com/news/linux/0,1411,42209,00.html
    2:00 a.m. Mar. 13, 2001 PST
    by Michelle Delio

    One of the first questions asked by mainstream technology companies beginning to offer Linux products or services is, "Who owns the penguin?"

    The answer is no one. The Linux logo, a plump penguin known as Tux, is an open-source image.

    Anyone can employ Tux to promote a Linux-related product, and there are no licensing fees or any need to get official approval from someone to use the penguin.

    ...But allowing people to add, alter and tinker with Tux has turned the portly penguin into a widely recognized logo, minus the usually high development costs that are invested into corporate design.

    "Tux is an excellent proof of concept of the whole rationale behind open source and free software development," said Marco Pastore, an open source programmer. "Release your creation to the community, let them do with it as they see fit, and you'll end up with something wonderful."

    Tux is not the product of an advertising agency, and no money was invested into his development. Artist Larry Ewing first drew him in 1996 when developers began to feel that one of the things that Linux really needed was a logo.

    Ewing designed Tux using GIMP (The GNU Image Manipulation Program), an illustration program that comes with many GNU/Linux distributions.

    On his website, Ewing grants everyone permission to use and modify the Tux image as they see fit, but he requests that he and GIMP be given credit "if someone asks."

    The penguin concept was picked from the crowd of other logo contenders when it became apparent that Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux kernel, had a "fixation for flightless, fat waterfowl," said Jeff Ayers, a Linux programmer.

    Linus Torvalds has claimed, in various posts to Linux kernel discussion groups over the years, to have been attacked by a "ferocious penguin that bit me and infected me with a little known disease called penguinitis.

    "Penguinitis makes you stay awake at nights just thinking about penguins and feeling great love towards them."

    Torvalds later said that while he did indeed have a close and personal encounter with a penguin, the bird wasn't ferocious, and just timidly nibbled on Torvald's finger.

    The general consensus among the Linux development community is that Torvalds was never attacked, nibbled, or otherwise molested by a penguin, but became fixated on Tux because a fat penguin wasn't a typical corporate logo, a theory that has been backed by later statements from Torvalds.

    I also suffer from Penguinitis. It's very contagious and there is currently no cure for this disease.

    Remote_Access_

  2. #2

    Talking

    heh heh! penguins!

  3. #3
    You should read Linus' book that came out. Cant remember the name right off, but a good read on the making of linux.
    Bolt actions speak louder than words.

  4. #4
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2001
    Posts
    276

    Aah sweet

    One should know ones roots ey!
    Dear Santa, I liked the mp3 player I got but next christmas I want a SA-7 surface to air missile

  5. #5
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2001
    Posts
    185
    Linus's book is called 'Just For Fun'
    Know this..., you may not by thyself in pride claim the Mantle of Wizardry; that way lies only Bogosity without End.

    Rather must you Become, and Become, and Become, until Hackers respect thy Power, and other Wizards hail thee as a Brother or Sister in Wisdom, and you wake up and realize that the Mantle hath lain unknown upon thy Shoulders since you knew not when.


  6. #6

    Wink

    "Tux has Sex Appeal" Thats why linux programmers always have a smile on their face.
    ------------EViLSEED
    Hackers are impervious. Resistant is futile.


  7. #7

    Talking Re: Sex appeal

    evilseed "Tux has Sex Appeal" Thats why linux programmers always have a smile on their face.
    I have to agree with you there Evilseed. You don't see M$ with sex appeal. Whats so sexy and/or appealing about an odd colored window? Do you ever see a M$ programmer with a smile?
    Of course not. They always look disapointed. Probably from all of the complaints about their software and the various bugs in it.

    Winblowz [insert version here] , what do you want to
    crash today?

    Remote_Access_

  8. #8

    YEA

    tux is awesome!! yea i agree with remote_access_, the multi colored window thing that m$ has is kind of fruity. penguins rock!!
    Life is just a series of decisions, each one can alter your future and you can possibly end your life at any moment. Do you really want to be under the care of the Microsoft Support Center?!?!

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