Talk:Tux (mascot)

How Tux was created

First of let me say that I am sorry if i am make a fault, or do not edit this correct, still new to editing Wikipedia..

If your read Linus Torvalds book: Just for fun by David Diamond (2001). They discuss how they came up with Tux on page 165-167.

It say that Linus was very happy for Penguins, and have been petting them before in zoo. One day someone said that Linux needed a symbol for Linux, Tove (Linus wife) then asked what about a penguin. Linus later got offered a designer to make Tux, but he never used him, one day Linus asked if there was any who could make picture of a penguin and send to him. He then choosed this one from Larry Ewing. It was important for Linus that the penguin look happy, like it just have been drinking a beer and just had some of the best sex in its life. I hope you can use this information, and maybe edit it into the article... Because I am still new and learning, I decided to simple just write it here instead. -- 20:34, 14 Dec 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.62.134.215 (talk)

I have some of the proto-tux images somewhere if anyone thinks they would be relevant. Tux started standing up and looking quite an angry bird. The spec for the penguin from Linus included this

'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' Alan Cox (talk) 23:07, 29 June 2010 (UTC)

leaving this alone has horked the section counter

I think the article would be do well to include this quote. --Jonathan Drain 11:26, 20 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Other mascots

How about a link to the FreeBSD Devil? I have no idea what his name is though.

I've drawn quite heavily from http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,42209,00.html in the creation of the article... perhaps someone would like to just check it's OK? I've tried to keep it within the bounds of fair use... can someone check, please? --Dave McKee

It looks fine to me. --MRC

The FreeBSD daemon is name "chuckie". Links to other mascots (e.g GNU, the OpenBSD blowfish, etc) would be interesting. Start a new category if there isn't one already. --Imroy

The FreeBSD Daemon name ISN'T Chuck. As stated in the FreeBSD.org Faq, his name is simply "FreeBSD Daemon" or "beastie"[1]SncBlue 02:03, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

I would add a link to ThinkGeek, since they carry a variety of Tux-related products, but it seems like that would be violating some general rule of the Wikipedia, since ThinkGeek is a commercial enterprise. Anyone have thoughts on this? --bdesham

Yes. No linkspam. Nothing sets Thinkgeek apart from the rest. --Maru (talk) 18:38, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

Someone has added a link to BSD Daemon, which is copyright Marshall Kirk McKusick. There is no Wikipedia page for Puffy but http://www.openbsd.org/art4.html should suffice — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.212.185.136 (talk) 03:56, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

Well, "See also" sections should contain only links to Wikipedia articles. — Dsimic (talk | contribs) 14:59, 18 March 2015 (UTC)

How about a note on Xenia, the Linux fox? She's certainly got a history (and IMHO, more marketability than a dead eyed naked penguin) worth noting somewhere on Wikipedia. There might not be any primary articles on her, but there certainly repositories and such.2601:540:C780:2:EF6E:7847:F8F8:1419 (talk) 22:02, 28 February 2024 (UTC)

Attitude

Added word disingenuously to describe attitude that no one noticed that penguin decor resembles a tuxedo. --Ortolan88

Why Tux?

What does the line in the 2nd para mean : "This may have been why a penguin was chosen, though." It was added by User:LittleDan (on 07:13 March 22). Does he want to say the penguin was chosen as the logo after the name Tux was chosen as the name for the logo ? Wasn't it the other way round, first the penguin was chosen and then a name given for it. --Jay 10:04, Sep 12, 2003 (UTC)

I read somewhere, I can't remember where, that they chose a the name because it was Torvalds UniX, and then made it a penguin because it looks why they're wearing tuxedos. I may be wrong. If so, please delete it. --LDan 00:46, 14 Sep 2003 (UTC)

My Tux web page covers all of the origin stuff in great detail. We could move all of that stuff over here if there is some kind of consensus that it would be appropriate: [2] SteveBaker 22:30, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

Image caption

The stuff about the concepts behind tux being developed on mailing lists isn't mentioned in the article itself. Is this actually true? --Lupin 12:18, 27 Aug 2004 (UTC)

That's what the artist says. See external link cited in Tux article [3]. I didn't go back to the lkml to actually review what was said. --Kop 03:07, 28 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I think the captions on the Tux image in Linux and Tux would be better switched, as the Tux article caption is more about Linux and vice versa. But I've had too much back and forth about the Linux caption to want to make the change myself. --Kop 03:07, 28 Aug 2004 (UTC)

A new tux?

Lots of recent images seem to be based on overlord's South-Park-style tux (see the link at the bottom of the page for a translated CrystalXP forum).

Is this becoming a new unofficial standard?

[[4]]

Since 2002 I'm seeing this Tux [5], I think was introduced by Red Hat.

Remeber this [6] has nothing Tux or nothing related with Linux but an old QuickTime mascot. --Rick Browser 03:09, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

Video games list

IIRC, the first Tux game ever was "Tux: A Quest For Herring", http://tuxaqfh.sourceforge.net/ (I wonder why SteveBaker didn't write about it). When I first played it many years ago, it also contained a "racing" level made for some kid contest (afair), which was a real inspiration behind Tux Racer (is it worth noting here? Or in TuxRacer?). Tux was called "Tuxedo T. Penguin" in tux-aqfh. --Lam 14:11, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Tux the Penguin: A Quest for Herring - aka Tux_AQFH - (which I did indeed write) was certainly the first 3D game about Tux - I kinda doubt it was the first game with Tux in it. I thought SuperTux was the first - but I can't find any reference to SuperTux before April 2000. The announcement of Tux_AQFH was on Slashdot on May 6th, 1999. I didn't write about this because it's generally considered bad form for Wikipedians to write about themselves (WP:NOR, etc). Tux_AQFH is no longer supported - I've learned a lot from my mistakes on that game and it's easier to toss it out and write something new than to fix it's problems. However, it got 50,000 downloads in 24 hours when we announced it on Slashdot - it was subsequently ported to BSD, Windows, Mac, SunOS and Irix. I also wrote TuxKart (which was much more successful and fun to play IMHO - I think that's the 'racing' game you are thinking of that may arguably have inspired TuxRacer. I worked heavily with the TuxRacer team providing OpenGL advice, etc - so I was pretty upset when it went closed-source. My son and I are currently writing a 3D game about Lemurs (The Lemur of Lima - yes, we know Lemurs come from Madagascar - but there's a plot point here!) it will have a cameo part for Tux and will be OpenSourced when it gets to a point where we've stopped having too much fun writing it and could use some help! If you have any questions, you know where my talk page is. SteveBaker 15:03, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

The list is almost all redlinks, which tells me they're not notable. And why should it include games with random other penguins? I'll revert to myself, but just once, since it's not a big deal. But seriously, it looks really bad. Melchoir 21:53, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

Agree a whole lot. It's pointless to link to non-existing articles, and I don't think I've heard of any of those games anyway. Haakon 22:36, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

I can agree with not linking to them - but keeping the list together seems worthwhile. I've heard of most of them - and they are mostly Tux games. I'll try to find the time to check out each one and ensure it meets the criteria of having Tux in the game and I'll remove the Wiki links and replace them with website links. SteveBaker 23:35, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

Isn't Tux Racer now a go-karting game, Its apparent that the game which involves sliding down icy hills on his belly is now known as PlanetPenguin Racer (I play it very often). See: http://projects.planetpenguin.de/racer/. 13enzoate 02:01, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

No - I don't think so. The history of TuxRacer is that Jasmin Patry started working on it as a college project in 1999, he did a GPL'ed version in 2000 and continued to maintain and enhance it until August 2001 when he decided to fork the code and take his copy closed source and try to sell it for profit. His company was called 'Sunspire Studios' which no longer appears to exist. Their website is being used for advertising and all of the links there to downloads, FAQs, etc just take you to more adverts. Meanwhile, when the package forked, Nathan Matias maintained and somewhat enhanced the GPL'ed version - calling it 'OpenRacer'. That effort seems to have fizzled within maybe 6 months - although you can still download an play that version. Nowadays we have 'PlanetPenguinRacer' - also derived from that same source code. None of these versions have any GoKarts in them - they feature Tux sliding down snowy/icy courses collecting herring along the way.

The game with the GoKarts is my own 'TuxKart' (which pre-dates TuxRacer but is often confused with it). This was a project I wrote with my son (who designed some of the race tracks and who'se actual 5th grade Math classroom is featured in one of the races because we did a presentation at his school for his math class and we decided to suprise them by using a very detailed model of the actual classroom we were giving the presentation in. Anyway - that project was finished as far as I was concerned when the HappyPenguin.com 'Game Of The Month' (GotM) team decided to put a month of intensive effort into improving TuxKart. This sounded like a good idea - but in fact they totally screwed up the entire thing and ended up with a game that wasn't even playable. I backed out all of their changes and restored the project to it's original state. Meanwhile, the remaining GotM guys forked my code and made a new project called 'SuperTuxKart' - which fizzled very soon after without leaving anything playable. However, just the other day I was approached by someone who wants to try to revive SuperTuxKart and make it work. I've declined to participate in that because I have other OpenSource projects that matter more to me now. However, I wish them well - TuxKart is long overdue for a polish since graphics cards are about 1,000 times faster than they were when TuxKart was written!

So - there's the story. TuxRacer == Penguin sliding down hill on ample stomach. TuxKart == Penguin driving GoKart. Many derivatives and spin-offs of both. SteveBaker 05:02, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Yes I took a look and found the go-karting game to be called TuxKart, thanks for clearing it up. 13enzoate 14:40, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

People confuse my game (TuxKart) with TuxRacer all the time. It would have been better if TuxRacer had been given a clearer name (Tux Downhill Racer or something). SteveBaker 17:01, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

I added a URL for Tux Typing and a short description from the home page. 13enzoate 03:24, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

Resnick/Halliday

So my physics teacher made the assertion today that the reason (or a reason) they chose a penguin was because of the frequent use of penguins in this physics book. I doubt it and I can't find anything about it, but can anyone clarify this? Crito2161 04:33, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

I've been involved with Linux since 1994, remember the original mascot discussions and have researched the topic. Despite this I've never heard

any claim Tux had anything to do with a Physics text. Robert Brockway 13:47, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

No - it definitely nothing to do with a physics book. Linus Torvalds has been asked this question a bazillion times - in his first reply (that I can find) dated 12th May 1996, he said:

"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."

Linus really likes Penguins - that's the bottom line. You can read all of those ancient emails surrounding the matter on my private Wiki. SteveBaker 04:06, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

PNG vs. SVG

The SVG version is not the original version. This page is meant to show the original version. The SVG version is not identical to the original version. Therefore we should not use the SVG version. Instead, we will use the original version in the PNG format. Thank you. --Ysangkok 20:17, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

Tux from the rear deserves mention

Kindly mention something about http://slaout.linux62.org/tux/freebsd_tux.jpg which I find just hilarious, but not apparently some people. Jidanni 16:15, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

I am not sure it won’t hurt (BSD and/or FLOSS) to add the picture to Wikipedia, even to an article like Operating system advocacy, Fanboy, or Software wars. Also, I think it’d be good to find the author’s name to credit the image to. --AVRS 18:13, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

There are a million pictures of Tux with which we could illustrate this article most of them, better than this one - but pictures are not here as some sort of archive - that's not what Wikipedia is for. (WP:NOT is quite clear on this point). The idea is to use images amplify the message delivered in the text. I don't see that this one adds anything to the story - it's just vulgar and offensive for the sake of it. It quite incorrectly depicts Linux and BSD as rivals - when in fact the two communities cooperate to a spectacular degree and there is a huge overlap in the two groups of people. Worse still, the BSD deamon is NOT free of copyright - you can't just post it anywhere you like - getting permission from whoever painted the image isn't enough - as you can see in BSD Daemon you also need permission from Marshall Kirk McKusick to use the image (unlike Tux, for example). So no - you are not allowed to add this image to ANY article in Wikipedia without doing quite a lot of leg-work - and even then, it would be very inappropriate in this article. SteveBaker 03:57, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, what I meant. --AVRS 11:13, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

OK, but I love the way he grits his teeth. Jidanni 13:32, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

Anyway, I just meant mention it, not "use" it. And gritting one's teeth might not mean rivalry but mere temporary uncomfort. But of course I did not interview the subjects. ☺ Jidanni 05:54, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

that isn't tux, that's Homer Simpson in a tux suit. Are you blind? 168.251.194.18 (talk) 22:05, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

Penguin?

WTH? What is with this penguin thing? I am looking for an article about the article of clothes, dammit! Da REAL Tony Clifton! 18:06, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

That would be a Tuxedo. (Sheesh!) SteveBaker (talk) 03:47, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Squeaky from Toy Story

hmmm? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 168.251.194.18 (talk) 22:07, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

Happy feet

just thinking. I have gotten more than once the comment, why have you got happy feet toy on your PC. And I think that I am not the only victim of ignorant people (which in turn thought I am retarded as I have not seen a kids film). is there any reference or something funny to put in this article about that? --Squidonius (talk) 12:23, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

It wouldn't be appropriate 192.155.57.91 (talk) 19:51, 16 March 2012 (UTC)

Tux in UserFriendly

I just searched through userfriendly.org and, except for a fantasy (Star Wars parody) flashback in late '98, Tux is not a part of User Friendly. I'm removing that reference. --Mlvezie (talk) 21:11, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

You are talking of: [7] - which means that all you did was a text search - which is a pretty lame way to search a visual medium. Sadly, this ain't gonna work because Tux is rarely mentioned by name. Check out this strip from Dec 2000 for example [8]. Hence, I'm reverting your revert. SteveBaker (talk) 04:00, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

plural

what is the plural for of Tux? The Tuxes? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.178.228.69 (talk) 23:49, 2 August 2008 (UTC)

There is only one Tux - plurals are unnecessary! :-P

SteveBaker (talk) 23:29, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Tux: Wonder penguin?

This line "Age of Empires III: An RTS game produced by Microsoft. One of the random names which is assigned to explorer's dogs is 'Tux the Conqueror'.[12]", in the list of places tux has appeared, makes me think they were intending the joke to about tux the dog biscuit (also tux wonderdogs, sponsored by tux thedog biscuit company) rather than tux the penguin. Anyone else agree? BileGhost (talk) 05:47, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

It is a possibility, mostly due to the fact that it is for a "Explorer Dog". However how far spread is this dog biscuit brand? I have never heard of it personally, maybe due to the fact that I am Canadian but still you have to wonder about its notoriety. We do know that Microsoft knows about Tux, but then Ensemble Studios made the game so it would probably be more of their doing (due to this is the dog biscuit sold in Dallas, Texas: where Ensemble is?). Comrade Graham (talk) 22:33, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

I live in the Dallas area and I have two large, ravenous dogs. I've never heard of Tux brand dog biscuits...so I doubt that's Ensemble's inspiration. SteveBaker (talk) 23:28, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Gown and Penny

I noticed that this section was deleted as "Original Research and Pointless Trivia".

"In some games that star Tux, a desire for more gender neutrality has resulted in allowing the players to play as either Tux or his female friend "Gown".[13] Gown is variously depicted as being a pink version of Tux (eg XTux) or as having a somewhat less fat appearance and wearing items of clothing such as a short skirt and a hair bow (eg TuxKart and Quest for Herring). In SuperTux and SuperTuxKart, there is a different female penguin called "Penny" who is purple and white. Tux's relationship with Penny is comparable to Mario's relationship with Princess Peach as seen in Super Mario Bros."

I disagree with it being called "Original Research" as it is extremely evident in several computer games, however it may not deserve its own section. As it is part of Tux in Video Games maybe it should be in that section? Comrade Graham (talk) 22:33, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

A very low polygon-count "Gown" as from TuxAQFH

Well, WP:OR or not - it's certainly true. I'm the author of TuxAQFH and TuxKart - and I can certainly attest that "Gown" was set up to be the female version of Tux - with a slightly more rounded figure and red skirt and hair bow with big white spots (somewhat inspired by Daisy Duck). The alternative "Penny" was probably invented by the author of a short-lived game called "XTux"...who simply repainted his Tux character pink. The "Gown" character made appearances in Super-Tux - but she was pink (or maybe purplish) like in XTux. When the team who took TuxKart and turned it into SuperTuxKart looked at the female-penguin issue, they decided to go with the pink look in order to produce some order to the Tux mythos and standardize with the SuperTux character. I have no clue why they went back to the original "Penny" name - particularly because they still have a racetrack called "Gown's Bow" - which is in the shape of...yep Gown's hair bow. Personally, I prefer "Gown" because (a) Penguins aren't pink, (b) when you're designing levels for a game and you want to ensure that your lead character stands out against the background, it's a whole lot easier when both leads are roughly the same color - ergo, Tux and Gown need to look similar - but clearly distinguishable - hence the red and white skirt and bow...and (c) "Gown" is a really witty name..."Penny"...meh...it does nothing for me. Feel free to use the image if you want it - or I can render some others from the original artwork if necessary. SteveBaker (talk) 23:25, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

• I think that "Gown" is dumb. "Penny" (PEN-guin) is great. Tux is looking to rescue Penny (not "gown") from Nolok. In STK, there is a Pennykart http://supertux.lethargik.org/wiki/images/c/c7/Pennykart1.png, and "Gown" is the little penguin that holds a magnet that rescues your kart. Penny is great and "Gown" is ugly. --Julius Freezer —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.118.193.91 (talk) 20:05, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

There is also another female penguin akin to Tux apparently in the upcoming Tux 2 by Roxor Games called "Trixi". With all of these "Tuxetes" (my own name for them ;-P) I am beginning to think that it does deserve a section after all. Would you support this User:SteveBaker? In which case our votes override the decision of User:Thumperward (I am going to start writing it anyway), no offense intended of course. Also, I first heard of "Penny" from SuperTux; I have never seen her called "Gown" in that game. Though I do believe your claim that XTux is probably the progenitor of the "Penny" name. I am surprised that this post was responded to so fast! :-O Comrade Graham (talk) 00:06, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

The section is done. It is called "Female Tux versions in Video Games" and is a sub-section of "Video Games". Comrade Graham (talk) 00:27, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Surf's Up

Tux makes a Cameo in that movie. He was on a picture. --66.205.143.105 (talk) 00:17, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

So what *is* Tux's relationship with Penny, then?

"Tux's relationship with Penny is comparable to Mario's relationship with Princess Peach as seen in Super Mario Bros." I just skimmed through all three of those pages and I'm none the wiser about what their relationship is, let alone Tux & Penny.

If this means "In these games the player controls Tux and the objective is to rescue Penny" can't it just say so? If there's more of a relationship, it could say "Penny is Tux's sister/employer/lover/best friend/owner/whatever, and as Tux the player must rescue her [from whom or what?]."

Personally I don't see the point of mentioning Mario & Peach since anyone who knows who they are will think, "oh like Mario and Peach", and those who don't, surely won't care? But, leave the comparison in if you think it will be notable to some people, in any case do please explain the relationship. Lessthanideal (talk) 23:04, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

Is there any reliable source establishing that Tux *is* a male penguin, anyway? The whole "more gender neutrality" paragraph smells of POV if not OR. Diego (talk) 08:35, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

Yeah - Linus refers to the penguin as "he" and "him" many times in the back and forth email at the start of the whole "mascot" thing. The penguin is also referred to as "it" in many places - but I've never once heard any of the creators or early proponents refer to Tux as a "she". As for the section on female tuxen - the cold hard fact is that at least four Tux-based games added a clearly feminine penguin to address the issues of gender neutrality. It's a fact - we can report it without POV or OR issues being involved. You might allege POV in the people who came up with the logo - or in the people who wrote the games - but Wikipedia is not here to right the wrongs of the world. Our reporting should be neutral - but the subjects we report on might not be. Personally - as one of the people who wrote Tux games - I knew that Tux was male, and to balance that - I invented "Gown" as a female counterpart. I even went to far as to poll the members of "GameGrrlz" to ask them how Gown should look - should she be 'hard core' with leather and studs? - should she be super-fluffy "hello kitty"? - should she be like "Jessica Rabbit"?...the clear answer (from females who play computer games) was that in a cute game, she should be "cute". When I suggested "Daisy Duck" as a kind of role model - they loved the idea. So - that's about as gender neutral as it gets. SteveBaker (talk) 16:38, 1 November 2010 (UTC)

Do you have the links to those conversations, or to some news article that covers them? This is all we need to cover this gender issue with neutrality. I'm not saying anything about the people who created the logo nor the Gown character - if this desire for gender neutrality comes directly from you, of course it's not POV to report that. The POV would be if Wikipedia editors themselves introduced the subject without references nor attribution, as the linked version did. Diego Moya (talk) 09:53, 2 November 2010 (UTC)

It's been a very long time since that stuff happened - I doubt I could find it anymore. I agree that without some kind of reference, it's pretty dubious to add this stuff into the article. However, I'd be remiss in pointing out that the history of all of this was NOT a bunch of random decisions. Several people who were working on Tux games (myself included) wanted to push for a 'style guide' for Tux games so that there would be some kind of consistency. It is no accident that (for example) TuxRacer and TuxKart both use spinning "herring" as collectibles in the game with silver/blue herring being worth normal "points", gold herring giving an extra life, red-herring giving you a random item (sometimes good, sometimes "it's a red herring", so it's bad) and green herring being poisonous in some way. We wanted it to be like Mario games where everyone knows that a mushroom gives you an extra life and that Mario dresses one way and Peach some other way and so on. Sadly, this stuff was never really formalized and the XTux guy totally ignored the wishes of other developers to make a coherent "story" out of all of this. Hence the various incarnations of "Gown" and "Penny". But we did think hard about what we were doing - and researched what we were going to do rather carefully.

However, since I doubt that I could locate private emails going back that far - this is probably never going to be referenceable. SteveBaker (talk) 14:57, 2 November 2010 (UTC)

The first reference that I could find (there are lots later) that says that Tux is definitely male comes in this comment from Linus (most of the time he's been saying "it" - but here, for the first time that I can find, he calls the penguin a "he"):

"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?".

That dates back to an extremely famous email entitled: "Re: Linux Logo prototype." from Linus Torvalds (torvalds@cs.helsinki.fi) - dated: Thu, 9 May 1996 17:48:56 +0300 (EET DST) - from the Linux kernel mailing list - which you can find archived here: http://lkml.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/9605/0855.html - you can find many, MANY mentions of the penguin with male gender language later...but this is probably the first.

SteveBaker (talk) 15:07, 2 November 2010 (UTC)

It's a shame that this bit of FOSS history has to be confined to the talk page. I actually found your description of those talks with gamers enthralling. But alas, WP:V forces us to leave them apart if they can't be verified. Do you have at least a link to the development site and the approximate dates of that genesis? Maybe someone else could use it to dig that reference later. Diego Moya (talk) 16:28, 2 November 2010 (UTC)

Well, TuxAQFH and TuxKart were both developed by me and my son - and only released onto SourceForge long after they were pretty much complete games. So there isn't any chatter about the development of them on any mailing lists or forums - the only stuff on those mailing lists are bug reports and such like. It's possible there might have been something on the TuxRacer mailing lists - but as far as I can recall, those were held on Jasmin Patry's own servers - and those went dark when he took the game commercial. I don't recall whether there was any talk on the XTux site. I don't hold out much hope of finding them. SteveBaker (talk) 20:49, 2 November 2010 (UTC)

Crux

What about crux? Is he Tux too? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dbh97 (talk • contribs) 16:09, 21 June 2012 (UTC)

The blue penguin logo used by the CRUX distro doesn't seem to have a special name - so I guess, still "Tux". Crux isn't the name of the blue penguin it's the name of a lightweight Linux distro. There is also the GNOME theme called "Crux" - but I think that's the same deal. SteveBaker (talk) 20:55, 21 June 2012 (UTC)

"In Popular Culture" Sources

The "In Popular Culture" section of this article lists several fictional penguins named Tux. However, as this article earlier states: "tux is also an abbreviation of tuxedo, the outfit which springs to mind when one sees a penguin." It is one thing to find a citation that a fictional penguin is named tux, it is quite another thing to say that it is named tux _after_ the Linux mascot, as opposed to being named independently. It would seem to me that those "in popular culture" items lacking such a citation ought to be removed. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.84.35.145 (talk) 01:32, 13 July 2013 (UTC)

Typography and pronunciation

I'm surprised that the article doesn't draw attention to the typographical oddity of the name (all caps, middle letter dropped slightly), or to the unusual pronunciation (it's actually pronounced to rhyme with 'luck'). I'd add this information to the article myself, if only I had a citation to offer. (By the way: if you don't get it, okay, you don't get it. But those people who do get it do get it.)

External links modified

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How is Tux not a ripoff of Mario 64's Tux?

In the article there's no mention that "Tux" is a minor penguin character in a 1996 game (the year Linux Tux was born). To me it's obvious that whoever created Linux Tux, just changed the design of Mario 64's character and called it a day.  TVippy  19:24, 5 June 2016 (UTC)

I think it's just a coincidence. "Tux" is a pretty obvious name for a penguin considering they are often said to resemble someone wearing a tuxedo. --2A00:23C6:CC00:7D00:2536:962:1760:9C69 (talk) 21:23, 8 September 2019 (UTC)

Requested move 12 March 2018

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: Moved. Overwhelming support for move. (non-admin closure) Natg 19 (talk) 04:05, 18 March 2018 (UTC)

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Tux → Tux (mascot) – Was brought up in the requested move of Tuxedo. Tux is a commonly used abbreviation, and in fact is the reason the penguin is named as such (since penguins are colored the same as tuxedos). So, it is the obvious WP:PRIMARYREDIRECT for Tux. _{ZXCVBNM (TALK)} 18:50, 12 March 2018 (UTC)

• Support. Chicbyaccident (talk) 19:04, 12 March 2018 (UTC)
• Support per nom. Top Google search results for tux overwhelmingly concern tuxedos, our article on the penguin excepted! Jellyman (talk) 19:29, 12 March 2018 (UTC)
• Support, tuxedo being the most familiar full name for this obvious abbreviation. The penguin was named Tux because it is black and white and looked like a Tuxedo, so the page name is a direct use of what should be the primary redirect. Randy Kryn (talk) 19:48, 12 March 2018 (UTC)
• Support In ictu oculi (talk) 22:11, 12 March 2018 (UTC)
• Support per previous comments. Shadow007 (talk) 05:36, 13 March 2018 (UTC)
• Support per above. I'd also be fine with Tux (disambiguation) moving to Tux. Paintspot Infez (talk) 12:08, 13 March 2018 (UTC)
• Support move per all above. ONR (talk) 15:11, 13 March 2018 (UTC)

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The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

How does an AI Generated image of Tux at all contribute to this article?

This seems to be a completely pointless addition to the page, I think we should remove it. AI isn't at all relevant to a page about a Linux mascot. CrazySniperCatt0 (talk) 08:12, 10 June 2024 (UTC)

@CrazySniperCatt0 I agree, the section is for the various depictions of Tux that are actually used, not some random AI generated art. On that note I think the "accidental Tux" is also somewhat irrelevant, it's just a penguin and it doesn't look like Tux anyway. sorry kid but i dont think they serve milk or juice boxes in this place (talk) 14:22, 1 July 2024 (UTC)

I agree that this generated image doesn't belong and isn't relevant; it's not an instance of the mascot in popular culture in any way and does not aid the reader in understanding this article's subject. - Aoidh (talk) 18:47, 1 July 2024 (UTC)

How does any of the stuff in the gallery at all "contribute to the article", or not be "random"? Is an eating utensil (File:Tux-wmf-gabel-vorne.jpg) open-source? File:Linux Platform.svg is not used anywhere except for this article, and it's not explained at all what its relevance is, so it would seem equivalently "random". If we don't want to have a gallery in the article, then we can just remove the whole thing, but I don't think there is a very solid basis to say that one drawing of Tux is good and another is bad, based on the fact that one was drawn with one computer program and the other was drawn with a different computer program. Sure, ClosedAI is fail poop®ieta®y bull$hit — but so is Mi¢®o$haft Losedoze and Crapple O$ X — and even though I have exclusively used free operating systems for the last decade I still think it would be prima facie asinine to remove images from an article solely for having been drawn in MS Paint.

I really don't see any difference whatsoever between this image and any other image on the page. The only distinction it has is that there are a bunch of posts on social media about "AI" (sometimes this means "transformer-based neural networks" and sometimes it means "venture-funded SaaS apps"), so every couple months someone will go through Wikipedia articles and remove a bunch of images on the vague basis of not liking them. On Commons the other day someone was going through batch-nominating everything from the DALL-E and Stable Diffusion categories, including the lead illustration from the article DALL-E on thirteen Wikipedias. I don't think that this is a productive approach.

Personally, I (like many people) tend to lean towards including more content in articles rather than less content, unless there's some concrete reason not to, like the content being defamatory or incorrect, or the page becoming unreadably long by its inclusion. This is not a strictly doctrinaire interpretation of all content policy, but it is close to 100% of the reason why there's a gallery in the article at all. The relevant section of the image use policy, which is WP:GALLERY, says that "Gallery images must collectively add to the reader's understanding of the subject". Does anything in this gallery "add to the reader's understanding of the subject"? We can either say "well, not directly, but a variety of depictions help readers better understand the vibe of the character" -- or we can say "well, not directly, so we shouldn't have a gallery" -- but not both. jp×g🗯️ 21:51, 9 July 2024 (UTC)

I believe we should have a gallery, and most of the images on the gallery are well recognized variations of Tux. You're right, a spoon with a penguin on it doesn't contribute to the article and it probably shouldn't be there, but it wasn't in the gallery of the English page and can only be seen on the German page for Tux and a few random pages. File:Linux Platform.svg isn't used anywhere else besides Wikipedia (and neither is cybertux).

This isn't about the image being Ai, OpenAI being "poop®ieta®y bull$hit" isn't very relevant. Cybertux simply hasn't been seen outside of this article and probably shouldn't even be there, it's irrelevant as opposed to most of the images in the gallery.

Removing the gallery is not an alternative solution. This isn't about any hatred towards AI and more about providing a relevant gallery of images that aid in the readers experience. It's very clear that Cybertux should go, this has been agreed on CrazySniperCatt0 (talk) 06:36, 10 July 2024 (UTC)

Agreed on by who? None of the images in the gallery are "relevant" by the standard you propose be used. Here is what's in it: File:Tux.svg ("Vectorized from the pixel image source") - this is someone's vectorization, not "official" art. File:NewTux.svg ("Gloss look Tux") is from a KDE fansite. File:Tux Enhanced.svg ("High quality 3D-look variant") is fanart that was submitted to openDesktop. File:TuxFlat.svg ("Modern flat look") is from DeviantArt. File:Tux Mono.svg ("Modern flat look in monochrome") - also from DeviantArt. File:Tux Classic flat look v1.1.svg ("Classic flat look: Emblem") is someone's fanart, uploaded to Commons, with no other source listed, and no usage besides a couple Wikipedia articles. Same for File:Tux Classic flat look 3D.svg ("Classic flat look: 3D") and File:Tux-simple.svg ("Simple vector variant"). File:Crystal 128 penguin.png ("Tux Crystal 1st revision") was an actual Crystal icon, but I don't know if these were actually "officially" part of KDE. File:TUX G2.svg ("Tux Crystal 2nd revision") isn't listed as officially being anything, it's just someone's art they uploaded to Commons. If this is not simply an issue of disliking the image and wanting it gone, I am interested in learning what standard of "official" or "relevant" anyone here is using that excludes that one but somehow includes all of these other ones. jp×g🗯️ 08:27, 10 July 2024 (UTC)

Agreed on by multiple people on the talk page I originally created. It's clear that there's plenty of room for debate. You are making some very good points regarding specific images, and I never said that Cybertux was the only problematic image. Maybe the gallery needs a revision, but I simply do not believe that outright removal is the solution.

Maybe all these deemed irrelevant should be removed CrazySniperCatt0 (talk) 19:20, 10 July 2024 (UTC)

I added a new topic denoting that problem, try finding it. Gnu779 (talk) 13:41, 28 October 2024 (UTC)

Something got erased...

I found that the variations of Tux got deleted. So now, people can't see what Tux looks like in different variations, except on Wikimedia Commons. So I will bring that back or you bring it back. Gnu779 (talk) 13:39, 28 October 2024 (UTC)