Tux- Linux Mascot

Penguin as logo/mascot for Linux was discussed first in early 1996 by several people in the linux-kernel mailing list. The idea of such mascot came from Alan Cox first. Among many other suggestions made by different people there were parodies of other operating system logos, sharks or even eagles. At some point Linus Torvalds casually mentioned that he was rather fond of penguins and it stopped the debates at once.The first person called the penguin "Tux" was James Hughes who said that it stood for "(T)orvalds (U)ni(X)". Tux was designed for a Linux logo contest.

Birth Of TUX:

A contest was proposed to pick a suitable Penguin logo - but from what I can see of the email at the time, Larry Ewing's famous Penguin painting won more or less by popular acclaim. Larry is on record as having first painted Tux using GIMP (The GNU Image Manipulation Program). Larry grants permission to use and/or modify the Tux image - but he requires you acknowledge him [ This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ] and The GIMP "if someone asks".

Linnie:

A very few Linux people call the penguin Tux as 'Linnie', but they are very few in number and fast deprecating.

TUX lost:

Reportedly there were at least three votes held on the choice of a Linux Logo. Suprisingly (in the light of subsequent events), Tux didn't win! In the largest and most final contest he polled only 541 votes compared to 785 for the winning design: Painted by Matt Ericson However, Linus seems to have asserted his desires and today, there is no doubt that Tux is by far better known and more widely used than others that figured highly in the competition. To be fair (and with a nod to democracy), we should perhaps call Tux the "Linux Mascot" - and leave the term "Linux Logo" for Matt Ericsons' image.