Tux is a

penguin Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae () of the order Sphenisciformes (). They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is equatorial, with a sm ...

character and the official

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, sports team, university society, society, military unit, or brand, brand name. Mascots are als ...

of the

Linux kernel The Linux kernel is a Free and open-source software, free and open source Unix-like kernel (operating system), kernel that is used in many computer systems worldwide. The kernel was created by Linus Torvalds in 1991 and was soon adopted as the k ...

. Originally created as an entry to a

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

logo competition, Tux is the most commonly used icon for Linux, although different

Linux distributions A Linux distribution, often abbreviated as distro, is an operating system that includes the Linux kernel for its kernel (operating system), kernel functionality. Although the name does not imply distribution (marketing), product distribution pe ...

depict Tux in various styles. The character is used in many other Linux programs and as a general symbol of

History

Origins

The concept of the

brand character being a

came from

Linus Torvalds Linus Benedict Torvalds ( , ; born 28 December 1969) is a Finnish software engineer who is the creator and lead developer of the Linux kernel. He also created the distributed version control system Git. He was honored, along with Shinya Yam ...

, the creator of Linux. According to Jeff Ayers, Linus Torvalds had a "fixation for flightless, fat waterfowl" and Torvalds claims to have contracted "penguinitis" after being nibbled by a

little penguin The little penguin (''Eudyptula minor'') is the smallest species of penguin. It originates from New Zealand. It is commonly known as the fairy penguin, little blue penguin, or blue penguin, owing to its slate-blue plumage and is also known by ...

on a visit to the National Zoo & Aquarium in

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. Linus spoke at the 1994 AUUG Conference (5–9 Sept, Melbourne) as part of a "World Tour" to Belgium, Australia, Singapore and elsewhere, mentioning in ''

Linux Journal ''Linux Journal'' (''LJ'') is an American monthly technology magazine originally published by Specialized System Consultants, Inc. (SSC) in Seattle, Washington since 1994. In December 2006 the publisher changed to Belltown Media, Inc. in Hous ...

'' he was bitten by a penguin at Canberra Zoo, not at Phillip Island, Victoria, by a (shy) wild penguin. In an interview Linus commented on the penguin bite: At Canberra zoo, a sign said in 2009 that staff believed the "original Tux" was still resident in the penguin enclosure. Apart from this, in the book ''Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary'', there is an excerpt dedicated to how Tux became the mascot of the Linux kernel. In the book, Linus says he does not remember how Tux became the mascot, but believes the zoo story, which, according to his wife, Tove Torvalds, is probably right. In 1996, after an initial design suggestion made by Alan Cox, an image Torvalds found on an

FTP The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard communication protocol used for the transfer of computer files from a server to a client on a computer network. FTP is built on a client–server model architecture using separate control and dat ...

site, showed a penguin

figurine A figurine (a diminutive form of the word ''figure'') or statuette is a small, three-dimensional sculpture that represents a human, deity or animal, or, in practice, a pair or small group of them. Figurines have been made in many media, with cla ...

depicted in a similar style to the '' Creature Comforts'' characters created by

Nick Park Nicholas Wulstan Park (born 6 December 1958) is an English filmmaker and animator who created '' Wallace & Gromit'', '' Creature Comforts'', '' Chicken Run'', '' Shaun the Sheep'', and '' Early Man''. Park has been nominated for an Academy ...

, the concept for Tux was further refined by Torvalds on the

Linux kernel mailing list The Linux kernel mailing list (LKML) is the main electronic mailing list for Linux kernel development, where the majority of the announcements, discussions, debates, and flame wars over the kernel take place. Many other mailing lists exist to d ...

. Torvalds was looking for something fun and sympathetic to associate with Linux, and he felt that a slightly fat penguin sitting down after having eaten a great meal perfectly fit the bill. The final and original design was a submission for a Linux

logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name that it represents, as in ...

contest by Larry Ewing using the first publicly released version (0.54) of

GIMP Gimp or GIMP may refer to: Clothing * Bondage suit, also called a gimp suit, a type of suit used in BDSM * Bondage mask, also called a gimp mask, often worn in conjunction with a gimp suit Embroidery and crafts * Gimp (thread), an ornamental tr ...

, a

free software Free software, libre software, libreware sometimes known as freedom-respecting software is computer software distributed open-source license, under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, distribut ...

graphics package. It was released by him under the following condition: Since Tux won none of the three competitions that were held Tux is formally known as the Linux ''brand character'' and not the ''logo''. The first person to call the penguin "Tux" was James Hughes, who said that it stood for "(T)orvalds (U)ni(X)". However, ''tux'' is also an abbreviation of

tuxedo Black tie is a semi-formal Western dress code for evening events, originating in British and North American conventions for attire in the 19th century. In British English, the dress code is often referred to synecdochically by its principal ...

, the outfit which bears resemblance in appearance to a penguin.

Tuz 2009

Tuz, a

Tasmanian devil The Tasmanian devil (''Sarcophilus harrisii''; palawa kani: ''purinina'') is a carnivorous marsupial of the family Dasyuridae. It was formerly present across mainland Australia, but became extinct there around 3,500 years ago; it is now con ...

wearing a fake penguin beak, was the brand character of the 2009

linux.conf.au linux.conf.au (often abbreviated as lca or LCA) is Australasia's regional Linux and open source conference. It is a roaming conference, held in a different Australian or New Zealand city every year, coordinated by Linux Australia and organised ...

conference. It has been chosen by Linus Torvalds as the logo for version 2.6.29 of the Linux kernel to support the effort to save the Tasmanian devil species from

extinction Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

due to the devil facial tumour disease. The image was designed by Andrew McGown and recreated as an SVG using

Inkscape Inkscape is a vector graphics editor. It is used for both artistic and technical illustrations such as cartoons, clip art, logos, typography, diagrams, and flowcharts. It uses vector graphics to allow for sharp printouts and renderings at ...

by Josh Bush, and released under the

CC BY-SA A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work". A CC license is used when an author wants to give other people the right to share, use, and bui ...

license.

Linux for Workgroups 2013

For the Linux 3.11-rc1 release, Linus Torvalds changed the code name from "Unicycling Gorilla" to "Linux for Workgroups" and modified the logo that some systems display when booting to depict a Tux holding a flag with a symbol that is reminiscent of the logo of

Windows for Workgroups 3.11 Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

, which was released in 1993.Linux for Workgroups
The H Open, 15 July 2013.

Uses and reception

In some Linux distributions, for example Gentoo, Tux greets the user during

booting In computing, booting is the process of starting a computer as initiated via Computer hardware, hardware such as a physical button on the computer or by a software command. After it is switched on, a computer's central processing unit (CPU) h ...

with multi-processor systems displaying multiple images of Tux, one for each processor core.

Video games

Tux has taken on a role in the Linux community similar to that which

Mario Mario (; ) is a Character (arts), character created by the Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the star of the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise, a recurring character in the ''Donkey Kong'' franchise, and the mascot of the Ja ...

holds in the

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...

community. The character has been featured in open-source look-alikes of other mainstream games, such as '' Tux Racer'', '' Extreme Tux Racer'', '' SuperTux'', '' SuperTuxKart'', and '' Tux Paint''.

''Team Fortress 2''

Tux appears as a cosmetic item in the game ''

Team Fortress 2 ''Team Fortress 2'' (''TF2'') is a Multiplayer video game, multiplayer first-person shooter game developed and published by Valve Corporation in 2007. It is the sequel to the 1996 ''Team Fortress'' Mod (video gaming), mod for ''Quake (video g ...

'', following the release of the Linux version of the game and the Steam client. It was obtainable by launching the game on any Linux distribution, from February 14 to March 1, 2013.

Female Tux versions in video games

Some games that star Tux also include explicitly female penguin characters, allowing the players to play as one of those characters instead of Tux. One such female penguin is Tux's friend "Gown". Gown is variously depicted as being a pink version of Tux (''XTux'') or as having a somewhat less fat appearance and wearing items of clothing such as a red and white short skirt and a hair bow (e.g. ''TuxKart'' and ''A Quest for Herring''). In ''SuperTux'' and ''SuperTuxKart'', there is a different female penguin called "Penny" who is purple and white (''SuperTuxKart'' once had Gown and still has a map called "Gown's Bow"). In the arcade game '' Tux 2'' there is a female penguin called "Trixi", and in '' FreeCiv'' the female leader name for the Antarctican civilization is "Tuxette".

Tux in popular culture

* In a

Froot Loops Froot Loops is a sweetened, fruit-flavored breakfast cereal made by WK Kellogg Co for the United States, Canadian, and Caribbean markets and Kellanova for the rest of the world. The brand was solely owned by the original Kellogg Company before ...

advertisement, Tux appears as a squeaky toy, the "secret weapon" to distract a pack of dogs pulling a sled containing the villain. * In the comics ''

Hellblazer ''John Constantine, Hellblazer'' is an American contemporary Horror fiction, horror comic-book series published by DC Comics since January 1988, and subsequently by its Vertigo Comics, Vertigo imprint since March 1993, when the imprint was introd ...

'', in issue #234 "Joyride, part 1", a Tux plush toy makes an appearance, set on the side of the road where a little girl was killed in a hit-and-run incident. * Tux appeared as a character during one arc in the

webcomic Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on the internet, such as on a website or a mobile app. While many webcomics are published exclusively online, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or ...

User Friendly ''User Friendly'' was a webcomic written by J. D. Frazer, also known by his pen name Illiad. Starting in 1997, the strip was one of the earliest webcomics to make its creator a living. The comic is set in a fictional internet service provider a ...

''.

Other uses

* In 1999, Corel Linux Deluxe included a free Linux Penguin (Tux) toy. * Since around 2001, there was a Linux-based

web server A web server is computer software and underlying Computer hardware, hardware that accepts requests via Hypertext Transfer Protocol, HTTP (the network protocol created to distribute web content) or its secure variant HTTPS. A user agent, co ...

named TUX, which was deprecated around 2006. * In 2006, Tux had an uncredited use in the '' Al Gore's Penguin Army'' video. * In 2007, Tux was used by the German

cutlery Cutlery (also referred to as silverware, flatware, or tableware) includes any hand implement used in preparing, serving, and especially eating food in Western culture. A person who makes or sells cutlery is called a cutler. While most cutlers ...

producer WMF in the ''Sealion'' set for children. * In 2008, Tux has also been made as a virtual pet under the name Tux Droid by Kysoh for Linux and Windows, has many features including reading tweets from

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

and checking the weather. * Since 2009, TuxGuitar, a free guitar tab reading/editing program, features Tux holding a guitar as its brand character. * In 2010, a prototype of a Tux

monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, historical ...

with wings was presented in the Russian city of

Tyumen Tyumen ( ; rus, Тюмень, p=tʲʉˈmʲenʲ, a=Ru-Tyumen.ogg) is the administrative center and largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Tyumen Oblast, Russia. It is situated just east of the Ural Mountains, along the Tura ( ...

by the local Linux user community. * The avatar of

Electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that came to prominence in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mos ...

artist Ephixa is based on Tux (around 2011). * In April 2016, Tux was adapted to a designer toy called a Gwin and was distributed by October Toys. The toy was redesigned by different artists and sold in short collectible runs through the October Toys website and other collectable vinyl toy sites. October Toys has since ceased operations.

Variations of Tux

File:Tux.png, Tux – The original, created by Larry Ewing File:Tux.svg, Vectorized version File:NewTux.svg, Glossy version File:TuxFlat.svg, Simplified version File:Tux Mono.svg, Simplified black and white version File:Crystal128-penguin.svg,

Everaldo Coelho Everaldo Coelho (; born March 25, 1978) is a Brazilian graphic designer and illustrator. He specializes in iconography, themes and user interface design. Everaldo's works include general illustrations, comics, children's books, corporate design ...

's interpretation of Tux, designed for the Crystal icon set in KDE 3. File:Pax tux.png, A version of Tux designed b
moolok.com
for use by the PaX team. File:Tux the Linux Penguin (with headband, bandolier, and rifle).jpg, Tux with a headband, bandolier, and rifle. File:Tux Enhanced.svg, Enhanced Tux with a modern look. File:Slackware-mascot.svg, Slackware version of Tux, with pipe.

References

External links

* {{Linux Linux Penguin mascots Computing mascots Anthropomorphic penguins Finnish mascots Fictional penguins Free software culture and documents Linus Torvalds Linux kernel Mascots introduced in 1996