Pinguinul

La inceput, prin anul 1996 cativa oameni vorbeau pe mailing list-ul kernelului linux despre o mascota sau logo pentru Linux. Dintre multele sugestii majoritatea erau parodii ale logo-urilor altor sisteme de operare sau animale nobile si puternice precum rechini sau vulturi. La un momentdat, Linus Trovalds (parintele Linuxului) a mentionat ca tine la pinguini si astfel dezbaterea s-a oprit.

Dupa cateva incercari de a desena pinguini in diferite ipostaze cineva a sugerat un pinguin tinand in maini globul pamantesc. Acesta este emailul de la Linus raspunzand eforturilor lui Dale Scheetz de a produce o astfel de imagine:

Re: Linux Logo prototype.
Linus Torvalds (torvalds@cs.helsinki.fi)
Thu, 9 May 1996 17:48:56 +0300 (EET DST)
Somebody had a logo competition announcement, maybe people can send their ideas to a web-site..

Anyway, this one looks like the poor penguin is not really strong enough to hold up the world, and it’s going to get squashed. Not a good, positive logo, in that respect..

Now, when you think about penguins, first take a deep calming breath, and then think „cuddly”. Take another breath, and think „cute”. Go back to „cuddly” for a while (and go on breathing), then think „contented”.

With me so far? Good..

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.

So when you think „penguin”, you should be imagining a slighly overweight penguin (*), sitting down after having gorged itself, and having just burped. It’s sitting there with a beatific smile – the world is a good place to be when you have just eaten a few gallons of raw fish and you can feel another „burp” coming.

(*) Not FAT, but you should be able to see that it’s sitting down because it’s really too stuffed to stand up. Think „bean bag” here.

Now, if you have problems associating yourself with something that gets off by eating raw fish, think „chocolate” or something, but you get the idea.

Ok, so we should be thinking of a lovable, cuddly, stuffed penguin sitting down after having gorged itself on herring. Still with me?

NOW comes the hard part. With this image firmly etched on your eyeballs, you then scetch a stylizied version of it. Not a lot of detail – just a black brush-type outline (you know the effect you get with a brush where the thickness of the line varies). THAT requires talent. Give people the outline, and they should say [ sickly sweet voice, babytalk almost ]”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?”.

Then we can do a larger version with some more detail (maybe leaning against a globe of the world, but I don’t think we really want to give any „macho penguin” image here about Atlas or anything). That more detailed version can spank billy-boy to tears for all I care, or play ice-hockey with the FreeBSD demon. But the simple, single penguin would be the logo, and the others would just be that cuddly penguin being used as an actor in some tableau.

Linus

De ce pinguini? Acest email al lui Linus ca raspuns la aceasta intrebare pare sa explice semnificatia pinguinului:

Re: Linux Logo
Linus 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 ave 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 wordperfect 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

Care pinguin? Un concurs a fost propus pentru a alege un pinguin potrivit iar faimosul pinguin al lui Larry Ewing a castigat mai mult sau mai putin prin votul publicului. Larry spune ca a pictat prima oara Tux folosind GIMP (The GNU Image Manipulation Program). Puteti gasi poza originala precum si o explicatie asupra modului in care Larry a lucrat pe http://www.isc.tamu.edu/~lewing/linux/.

De ce i se spune „Tux”? Ca majoritatea oamenilor am crezut mereu ca se trage de la englezescul „Tuxedo” (frac) deoarece pinguinii par ca il poarta si astfel explicatia este rezonabila; Jacob Poon a cercetat insa acest lucru si a gasit prima incercare cunoscuta de a numi pinguinul in acest mesaj:

Let’s name the penguin! (was: Re: Linux 2.0 really _is_ released..)
Henning Schmiedehausen (barnard@forge.franken.de)
10 Jun 1996 16:18:56 +0200
torvalds@cs.helsinki.fi (Linus Torvalds) writes:
> Ok, I took the plunge, and Linux-2.0 is out there on the normal
> sites. I even got the energy to write some inane announcement
> about it on cola, so it’s too late to chicken out any more.
So it’s the ‘Electrified Penguin on Cola’ release? 😉
Anyway: Congratulations for this great achievement.

Let’s start the ‘We name that penguin while Linus is not around’ contest.
I vote for ‘Homer’ (Of course) 🙂

Ciao
Henning