Why Linux is portrayed as a Penguin?

  • The penguin’s name is “Tux” and he’s the official Linux mascot.

    I think Linus Torvalds picked it a long time ago, he said he wanted something that was non-threatening, so hence the penguin lol.

    The debate about Linux vs GNU/Linux imo, is one of the stupidest and pedantic debates I’ve ever heard. Maybe it mattered 30+ years ago when things were much less developed and only hardcore nerds and programmers used it, but now days it’s only important to grognards and neckbeards.

    Hot take, but it’s like those pretentious music enthusiasts that will argue about what precise genre an artist fits into. “I would say they are post-progressive indie skitzo-pop. No way! They are clearly more neo-grunge sca-punk with post-rock elements” who cares?? Have your ultra-precise categories in your personal music collection all you want, but acting like it’s based on some hardcore objective truths of the universe is stupid.

    Nobody is confused when I say I run Linux as my OS. Actually, people do get confused but it’s not because of GNU/Linux, it’s because they haven’t ever heard of Linux and thought that Windows and MacOS were the only 2 OSes for computers.

    If somebody genuinely pulled an “um, actually” on me for saying Linux vs GNU/Linux, I would scream laugh loudly and then change the subject.

    • corvus ( corvus@lemmy.ml ) 
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      3 years ago

      It’s not unusual to see people talking about android users being Linux users “because android is Linux too” clearly not understanding the difference between Linux the OS, i.e. GNU/Linux, and Linux the kernel. So it’s useful when you have to make such a distinction.

        • phx ( phx@lemmy.ca ) 
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          3 years ago

          Alpine or PostmarketOS works for older stuff. Some others will run Ubuntu as well.

          Instead of “Linux on [phone]” try using Debian/Ubuntu or one of the mobile-targeting distros as a keyword

          • Patch ( Patch@feddit.uk ) 
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            3 years ago

            Alpine

            Alpine is also arguably not “GNU/Linux”, as it doesn’t use GNU Core Utils or glibc. But I don’t know anyone who would suggest that Alpine isn’t “proper Linux”.

  • GNU/Linux is the more technically accurate term, but in practice, most people say “Linux” so that others know what they’re talking about.

    And the reason for Tux is because Linus Torvalds was once bitten by a penguin.

  • For me its GNU/linux formally. Linux would not mean anything to me without the gpl. I would likely be using freeBSD or sticking with windows/mac. Heck I would be using mac now if they had not abandoned their great warrantly support of pre 2010

  • raubarno ( raubarno@lemmy.ml ) 
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    3 years ago

    As the others made a good point, Linux is the kernel (program that connects hardware altogether and manages processes). GNU is an organisation beginning in 1983 that made some vital userland programs (Bash, GCC, readline, GNOME, GTK, GIMP, etc.) as a replacement of the proprietary ones found in UNIX and Windows. Linux is created by a Finnish student Linus Torvalds and is not a part of the GNU project but it’s been licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL), the first free software license.

    Linux is used by a lot of companies, and some of the products that have Linux inside refuse to accept the paradigm of software freedom. Examples of this are: Chrome OS, Windows Subsystem for Linux, Google Android and some (but not all) appliances (like routers) that are locked-in and contain proprietary blobs.

    Therefore, in technical discussions, I use the word “Linux” to refer to the OS, as “this software is compatible with Linux”. But, when I want to stress out software freedom, given a large influence of the GNU project, I say “GNU/Linux”.

  • franpoli ( feanpoli@lemmy.ml ) 
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    3 years ago

    It depends on what matter to you. I use a GNU/Linux distribution and I call it that such because I think the project deserves to be better known. I say FLOSS rather than FOSS because I value freedom.