Linux mascot Tux the penguin hits 30 years old — Linus Torvalds outlined the design of the 'slightly overweight penguin' on May 9, 1996

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https://www.tomshardware.com/software/linux/linux-mascot-tux-the-penguin-hits-30-years-old-linus-torvalds-outlined-the-design-of-the-slightly-overweight-penguin-on-may-9-1996

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The original was posted on /r/pcmasterrace by /u/gurugabrielpradipaka on 2026-05-09 12:46:29+00:00.

The contented penguin had to be overweight like it had eaten a bucketful of herring, as the only other kind of happy penguin is one that has ‘just gotten laid,’ reasoned the Linux supremo.

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he/him

Fuckin lmao, I was not prepared for the reasoning

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Release the “Just got laid” Tux version!

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I’m sure Rule 34 has produced endless variety of these if you dare look for them.

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there aren’t that many

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be the change you want to see in the world

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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)

Classic Linus.

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Bro over here body-shaming the fucking Linux mascot.

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overweight for a human, incredibly sexy for a penguin.
“oh my god i think he could incubate TWO eggs at once!”

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Holy shit I misread “outlined” as “outlived” and had a mini panic attack until I reread the sentence.

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Did he just have “slightly overweight penguin” in the chamber, ready to go or did he have to think about it?

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Xenia will forever be the true Linux mascot in my heart.

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Xenia? For when you want to run Linux on an IBM compatible with a 500Mb drive, CD-ROM and a 14.4 modem?

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Is the penguin biting Linus a real story or urban legend?

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I don’t think tux is going anywhere, because there really isn’t a need for a user-facing logo for the kernel.
What users will see are logos for the specific distro, and those have been pretty good for like 2 decades now.

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