今天收到了这期的Linux Gazette，才知道原来Linux吉祥物还有一个名字叫Tux（英文直接翻译过来是男士无尾半正式晚礼服，倒是和这个小企鹅的打扮很配）。它是一位男式，据说是迷倒一片（母企鹅）型的超级帅哥。它是在kernel 2.0版发布的时候正式诞生的。 A Brief History Of Tux - So Far 给了这个帅哥的一个简单介绍。
据说开始的时候在96年，大家就开始讨论给linux定一个logo。 很多人的提议要么是模仿其他一些操作系统的logo，要么就是一些鲨鱼、鹰这类比较强壮，大气的动物。最后Linux它老爹Linus Torvalds说他喜欢企鹅，并觉它感到骄傲（可能企鹅象征了芬兰这个雪国）。当时linus关于为什么选择企鹅的电子邮件居然也被人保留到现在：
Re: Linux Logo
Linus Torvalds ( [email][email protected][/email])
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 " [url]http://www.isc.tamu.edu/~lewing/linux/[/url]" for some nice examples..

Linus