WHY PENGUINS?

Re: Linux LogoLinus 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 have 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 Word Perfect 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 "http://www.isc.tamu.edu/~lewing/linux/" for some nice examples.

Linus

Clarksville