Tux in A Holiday Dream. Unless your granny bashes shells, then this is probably not your grandma’s penguin. Once upon a time, James Hughes called this penguin “Tux;” he said that it stood for “(T)orvalds (U)ni(X).” This is Tux the penguin, the official mascot for Linux. There are many different Linux distributions, a bit like operating system flavors, that utilize the Linux kernel, but even if displayed in various styles, Tux is iconic for Linux distros and free, open source software. Photo #1 by LaserGuided
Small and Furry and Hungry; this little guy might be more the type of penguin your grandma knows. Yet the father of Linux also knew of and was bitten by the little Blue Fairy Penguin, as Wikipedia states, “A Little Penguin, also known as the Fairy Penguin in Australia and the Blue Penguin in New Zealand, inspired Torvalds to suggest using a penguin as the Linux mascot.” According to Jeff Ayers, “Linus Torvalds had a ‘fixation for flightless, fat waterfowl’ and Torvalds claims to have contracted ‘penguinitis’ after being gently nibbled by a penguin: ‘Penguinitis makes you stay awake at nights just thinking about penguins and feeling great love towards them.” Photo #2 by M Kuhn
A painted graffiti style portrait of Linux’s father, Linus Torvalds. Torvalds’ supposed Penguinitis “illness is a joke, but he really was bitten by a Little Penguin on a visit to the National Zoo & Aquarium, Canberra, Australia. Torvalds was looking for something fun and sympathetic to associate with Linux, and a slightly fat penguin sitting down after having had a great meal perfectly fit the bill.” Interested in seeing Torvald’s original email about why a penguin for a mascot? “Using something like a penguin gives people the chance to make modifications that are still recognizable,” Torvald wrote. It was in this spirit that we send out season’s greetings from Tux with Love to Linux Users. Photo #3 by Thierry Ehrmann
Tux was, “originally designed as a submission for a Linux logo contest. Three such competitions took place; Tux won none of them. This is why Tux is formally known as the Linux mascot and not the logo. Tux was created by Larry Ewing using the first publicly released version (0.54) of GIMP, a free software graphics package. It was released by him under the following condition: Permission to use and/or modify this image is granted provided you acknowledge me lewing@isc.tamu.edu and The GIMP if someone asks. In an interview Linus commented on the penguin bite: I’ve been to Australia several times, these days mostly for Linux.Conf.Au. But my first trip—and the one when I was bitten by a ferocious Fairy Penguin: you really should keep those things locked up!—was in 93 or so, talking about Linux for the Australian Unix Users Group.” Photo #4 by Fir0002
Linux Inside. Do you think the world is powered by Windows? Did you know that 94% of the World’s Top 500 Supercomputers Run Linux? Wicked Saga added, “In fact, the penetration of Linux in data centers is very high, 33.8% of the world runs on Linux servers compared to 7.3% does so in a Microsoft operating system. For example, Google’s servers run on Linux, like the server hosting the website of the White House (which is done in Drupal, by the way).” Photo #5 by Fernando Ruiz Altamirano
Let the tribute begin with a little love for the Linux mascot with pets such as this dog. “Tux, Tux and Angua.” Photo #6 by Sascha
Kitties fascinated with Tux. Photo #7 by Mike Lawson & #8 by Salihan Laugesen
Tux attacked. “Only 2% of the current Linux kernel was written by Linus Torvalds.” Photo #9 by rore
Tux crossing. Microsoft or other proprietary software has restrictions to tweaking the code, put another way, you buy it but you are more or less just renting the software without any rights. Other software is free and the source code is “open,” so if you have the skills then you can tweak away. Now let’s see Tux traveling. Photo #10 by David Coleman via DesktopNexus
Tux and Tix and EP (European Parliament). Photo #11 by francois
The years of maturity. Linux is now a big guy 
Photo #12 by Éole Wind
Tux on Champs Elysées in Paris in front of Arc de Triomphe. The photographer noted, “Tux will … triomphe ?!” Photo #13 by francois
Tux in front of The Louvre Pyramid which is the main entrance to the Louvre Museum in Paris. Photo #14 by francois
World renowned mascot for Linux, Tux. Photo #15 by francois & #16 by Éole Wind
Tux at incredible Iguazú Falls. Photo #17 by Juan Manuel Caicedo Carvajal
Tux and GNU: Official interview in front of the European Parliament. Right: Tux & The BSD Daemon. Photo #18 by francois & #19 by Scott Beale
Tux crossing at Oracle. Photo #20 by Kevin Collins
Tiny tux pen tester on laptop finding big trouble hacking with back track. Technosalons asked did you know?: “U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Navy Submarine Fleet, Federal Aviation Administration uses Linux in government offices. Indian state of Tamil Nadu uses Linux for education purpose. Countries such as Russia, Brazil and Venezuela have put their focus on Linux as a basis for interoperable management, cost efficient and technologically independent.” Photo #21 by occ4m & #22 by HackingDNA Penetration Testing Blog & #23 by Hacking DNA
Tux is everywhere: “Linux is present in highly critical applications such as Japan’s bullet trains, traffic control, San Francisco, the New York Stock Exchange, CERN, many air traffic control systems or control of nuclear reactors of submarines and ships many nuclear war.” Left: Tux in front of La Bourse de Paris. Top right: Tux in Santorini, Greece. Bottom right: Tux riding elePHPhant (PHP elephant) at Schematic Atlanta office. Photo #24 by Titanet & #25 by Juan Manuel Caicedo Carvajal & #26 by Brian DeShong via Ben Ramsey
“Helsinkind Jump. Photo take in Helsinki. This place is amazing, people are so nice, that I would to rename it Helsinkind. Jumpers here are Markus, Paul and Tux who is also from Finland.” Photo #27 by Éole Wind
Tux spotted in the wild (wilds of snowy nature). Photo #28 by francois & #29 by francois
Embrace Open Standards! Photo #30 by Tim Gould
Linux Babies, future Linux kernel hackers who will bash the shell, love Tux. Photo #31 by takaaki nishioka & #32 by Irregular Shed & #33 by takaaki nishioka & #34 by Patrick Fitzgerald & #35 by patrick_haverkamp
/dev/baby. Photo #36 by Paul Fenwick
Tux invocation by Naruto. Photo #37 by francois
Big Tux und Little Tux Lego mania. Photo #38 by Norbert Schnitzler
Lego Linus Torvalds, Initiator of the open-source Linux project, and tux. Lower left: Tux and iPod earphone. Lower right: gnu/linux Photo #39 by Andrew Becraft & #40 by LaserGuided & #41 by zopeuse
Tux handles Spam. Photo #42 by Christian Barmala
Tux is pretty popular. Photo #43 by occ4m
Tux food tribute: “Crowds of singing Linux penguins.” Photo #44 by Michael Krigsman
Linux and tux inspire all kinds of people in all kinds of ways. Left: Today’s latte, Tux the Linux mascot. Right: LINU☭ and Tux graffiti art. Photo #45 by Yuko Honda & #46 by EisFrei & #47 by Keef Andrew
Penguin crossing for Tux at Stanely Park, Vancouver, BC, CA. In 2010, the local Linux Users Community in Tyumen, Russia, erected a monument to Tux. Photo #48 by Sarah Han
Linux graffiti, Tux in Seattle. Photo #49 by clpo13
Tux graffiti in Torino, Italy. Did you know that some dude “named William Della Croce Jr. registered the name Linux and demanded royalties for use of the mark. Later, he agreed to assign the trademark to the true owner, who is Torvalds.” Photo #50 by Michela Mongardi
IBM’s Peace, Love, and Linux advertising campaign, sidewalk graffiti, observed on April 20, 2001 9:39:38 AM in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Photo #51 by David Tames
Top: All the usual suspects. Linux distros are many and each has its own strengths: Ubuntu, Debian, Red Hat, Fedora, Mandriva, CentOS, Slackware, OpenSUSE, Archlinux, Gentoo, Puppy linux. “There are over 300 distributions GNU / Linux activities ranging from the well known Ubuntu or Debian distributions through governmental or educational level.” Just as there are many distros, tux lovers also come in many flavors: tux kamasutra? Photo #52 by ripples on reality & #53 by linux systens info & #54 by Alejandro Villanueva
Linux Love. Photo #55 by Desktop Nexus
There’s a tux for everyone: Tux Calvin, as in Calvin and Hobbes, a snowman’s worst nightmare. Top right: “Gifts from my dancing partner. She really knows what real man needs . She gave me the big Tux penguin for my 19 birthday, and the hand made (!!!) tie for this Christmas. But she is using the other OS 
.” For the tux toilet paper: “We didn’t get to see Blue Penguins in the penguin colony, so this was the next best thing.” Photo #56 by Andrew Kuznetsov & #57 by Jan Kaláb & #58 by Christopher “cricket” Hynes
Tux proving Windows sucks. In 2002, Microsoft had accumulated a $421 million cost of fighting the spread of Linux Photo #59 by my opera
Tux vs Apple and Microsoft;s MSN. Photo #60 by Jabrwocky7 & #61 by vinux
Tux superheroes. “Linux has caught on in many sectors and probably one of the least known is the film industry. 95% of the servers used by Hollywood studios for animation films have installed a GNU / Linux. In fact, the Oscar-winning visual effects of the Titanic by James Cameron came from machines with Linux and, according to James Cameron, Avatar was the first film shot entirely in 3D applications using free software on Linux machines.” Photo #62 by alkore31
Say hi, happy holidays, send a smile to your Tux, be it a Tux family, Matrix ninja Tux hacker, or Tux in Black. Photo #63 & #64 & #65 all by Desktop Nexus
Coke bears and tux, Happy holidays. Photo #66 by Desktop Nexus
Tux Nativity: Merry Christmas! Photo #67 by open walls
Christmas Tux Ubuntu: If this is not your grandma’s (or parent’s) penguin, then why don’t you get them started with Ubuntu? Photo #68 by linuxstickers
Long live Linux, free and open source software. Happy Holidays, Love from Tux. Photo #69 by Information Technology Enthusiast
Looking for the other type of penguins? Here’s 41 Photos of Incredibly Cute Penguins.
