I'm thankful for the Linux Penguin

[yesthattom]

Until Linus starting using the Penguin as a symbol, all the images around Unix were a wizard. This required people to explain that Unix was so completely complicated that only wizards understood it. The perception of the “Unix Wizard” eventually became more of a hindrance than a badge of pride. It was brilliant for Linus to adopt the Penguin, which is friendly, cute, and cuddly. Changing the symbol from a Wizard to a Penguin may have done more for the marketing of *nix systems than years of corporate efforts by AT&T/USL, HP, Sun, and so on.

The first “Unix Wizard” picture I remember.

Comments

[polydad.livejournal.com]

People who think penguins are cute and cuddly have *not* met one in the wild. What one meets in the wild is a four-foot-tall carnivore that wears a sword on its face.

Linus was smart enough to use a cute, cuddly, *toy* penguin. Stuffed toys are, as you describe, friendly, cute, and cuddly. Live emperor penguins *are* often friendly, but having a friendly carnivore nearby is not a cuddly experience.

best,

Joel

[barking-iguana.livejournal.com]

The smaller species are a little easier to relax around, judging by videos I've seen.

[docstrange.livejournal.com]

Phil Foglio drew the BSD daemon in 1976.

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

ETA: more linky
http://www.mckusick.com/beastie/shirts/usenix.html
http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/BSD_Daemon

[docstrange.livejournal.com]

(Not that a little red devil is better than a wizard in terms of conveying "friendly," however.)

[jwg.livejournal.com]

I was managing an OS project to build a new system for a Honeywell system. We called the system Opus and the mascot was a platypus. Sometime after Bull bought the Honeywell computer business they killed the project and someone stuck a spiked french flag in the cartoon on the wall. The VP sent down a nasty note: Take down that picture of the penguin!

[yesthattom.livejournal.com]

One step forward for those that love in-jokes, one leap backwards for broadening the appeal of Unix. Plenty of evidence of that!

[yesthattom.livejournal.com]

rotfl!

[cpj.livejournal.com]

Linux can't fly. :)

That being said, Unix was never marketed towards people who would be swayed one way or another just by a mascot.

Where does the BSD devil fit into this?

[mtnvwpilot.livejournal.com]

I had one of those posters, picked up at a USENIX or Uniforum or something in the mid-late 80's... I had the one or two followup posters, too. I think I tossed them all about 4 employers ago... Might have been cool to have kept them, but no big deal.