Why a penguin?

[ferentix]

Strange, this has been puzzling me for a while now...

Why Tux? What exactly has a penguin got to do with any OS?

I do quite like to see him and the many variants around- but I just wonder what (if any) the connection is?

EDIT: Had a look at linux.org FAQ, and found this line:



Linux has an official mascot, Tux, the Linux penguin, which was selected by Linus Torvalds to represent the image he associates with the operating system


This just makes things stranger:

Penguins are ungainly waddling flightless birds, unless in the water. So Linux OS are slow and ungainly unless you get them into the sea?

[Malphas]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tux

[dosed150]

penguins are good at what they do and come in lots of varieties kinda like linux its a stretch but still

[ember]

If it does not fly, it cannot crash ;)

[Kyral]

Because its offbeat and original

[Master Shake]

Why?

Why not?

[etc]

It's like any other animal mascot.

[mstlyevil]

I thought it was because it was cute and cuddly. Now I am going to hug a puppy.

[Master Shake]

Why are Chicago's two baseball teams represented by items that can't play baseball (Plus, there's no Bears or Cubs within 700 miles of Chicago)

To quote my namesake from the Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode "Rabbot"

"Why is anything anything?"

[ferentix]

heh, OK. Clears things up ;)

Like I say, I like Tux as a mascot, and he is somehow inexplicably linked with Linux in my mind, but I just couldn't see why :)

[matthew]

I heard that Linus chose it solely because he likes penguins.

[Qrk]

I love tux because each distro can modify him to be their mascot. He can be a character. For instance, my favorite logo is the mac-on-linux one where Tux hugs an apple. Or you can have tux "break" windows. He's fun and extendable.
Think of the windows logo. You can't really modify it to be something different. I mean if you want a graphic of a window hugging an apple...