In the beginning, sometime in early 1996, several people were talking on the linux-kernel mailing list about a suitable logo/mascot for Linux. Of the many, many suggestions, many involved parodies of other operating system logo's - or were strong, noble beasts such as Sharks or Eagles. At some point (I'm not sure when), Linus Torvalds (the father of Linux) casually mentioned that he was rather fond of Penguins - which rather stopped the debate in its tracks.

After several attempts to draw Penguins in various poses, someone suggested a Penguin holding up the world. Here is the famous email from Linus - in response to Dale Scheetz' efforts to produce a such an image:

Re: Linux Logo prototype.

Linus Torvalds (torvalds@cs.helsinki.fi)

Thu, 9 May 1996 17:48:56 +0300 (EET DST)

.
Somebody had a logo competition announcement, maybe people can send their
ideas to a web-site..
.
Anyway, this one looks like the poor penguin is not really strong enough to
hold up the world, and it's going to get squashed. Not a good, positive logo,
in that respect..
.
Now, when you think about penguins, first take a deep calming breath, and
then think "cuddly". Take another breath, and think "cute". Go back to
"cuddly" for a while (and go on breathing), then think "contented".
.
With me so far? Good..
.
Now, with penguins, (cuddly such), "contented" means it has either just
gotten laid, or it's stuffed on herring. Take it from me, I'm an expert on
penguins, those are really the only two options.
.
Now, working on that angle, we don't really want to be associated with a
randy penguin (well, we do, but it's not politic, so we won't), so we
should be looking at the "stuffed to its brim with herring" angle here.
.
So when you think "penguin", you should be imagining a slighly overweight
penguin (*), sitting down after having gorged itself, and having just burped.
It's sitting there with a beatific smile - the world is a good place to be
when you have just eaten a few gallons of raw fish and you can feel another
"burp" coming.
.
(*) 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.
.
Now, if you have problems associating yourself with something that gets
off by eating raw fish, think "chocolate" or something, but you get the
idea.
.
Ok, so we should be thinking of a lovable, cuddly, stuffed penguin
sitting down after having gorged itself on herring. Still with me?
.
NOW comes the hard part. With this image firmly etched on your eyeballs, you
then scetch a stylizied version of it. Not a lot of detail - just a black
brush-type outline (you know the effect you get with a brush where the
thickness of the line varies). THAT requires talent. Give people the
outline, and they should say [ sickly sweet voice, babytalk almost ]"Ooh,
what a cuddly penguin, I bet he is just _stuffed_ with herring", and small
children will jump up and down and scream "mommy mommy, can I have one too?".
.
Then we can do a larger version with some more detail (maybe leaning
against a globe of the world, but I don't think we really want to give
any "macho penguin" image here about Atlas or anything). That more
detailed version can spank billy-boy to tears for all I care, or play
ice-hockey with the FreeBSD demon. But the simple, single penguin would
be the logo, and the others would just be that cuddly penguin being used
as an actor in some tableau.
.
Linus


Why Penguins?

This email from Linus in response to this very question seems to explain the significance of the Penguin:

Re: Linux Logo
Linus Torvalds (torvalds@cs.helsinki.fi)
Sun, 12 May 1996 09:39:19 +0300 (EET DST)
.
Umm.. You don't have any gap to fill in.
.
"Linus likes penguins". That's it. There was even a headline on it in
some Linux Journal some time ago (I was bitten by a Killer Penguin in
Australia - I'm not kidding). Penguins are fun.
.
As to why use a penguin as a logo? No good reason, really. But a logo
doesn't really ave to _mean_ anything - it's the association that counts.
And I can think of many worse things than have linux being associated
with penguins.
.
Having a penguin as a logo also gives more freedom to people wanting to
use linux-related material: instead of being firmly fixed with a specific
logo (the triangle, or just "Linux 2.0" or some other abstract thing),
using something like a penguin gives people the chance to make
modifications that are still recognizable.
.
So you can have a real live penguin on a CD cover, for example, and
people will get the association. Or you can have a penguin that does
something specific (a Penguin writing on wordperfect for the WP Linux CD,
whatever - you get the idea).
.
Compare that to a more abstract logo (like the windows logo - it's not a
bad logo in itself). You can't really do anything with a logo like that.
It just "is".
.
Anyway, go to "www.isc.tamu.edu/~lewing/linux/" for some nice examples..
.
Linus

Well, thanks Linus - without your help, I'd be writing a video game about a triangle with "Linux 2.0" written inside it!


Which Penguin?

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). You can find the original image and an explanation of how Larry painted him here: [1].

Larry grants permission to use and/or modify the Tux image - but he requires you acknowledge him <lewing@isc.tamu.edu> and The GIMP "if someone asks".


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Source www.sjbaker.org/
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Interesting Story..

Thanks for sharing