Talk:Tux

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[edit] Quote

I think the article would be do well to include this quote. --Jonathan Drain 11:26, 20 Oct 2004 (UTC)


[edit] Other mascots

How about a link to the FreeBSD Devil? I have no idea what his name is though.

I've drawn quite heavily from http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,42209,00.html in the creation of the article... perhaps someone would like to just check it's OK? I've tried to keep it within the bounds of fair use... can someone check, please? --Dave McKee

It looks fine to me. --MRC
The FreeBSD daemon is name "chuckie". Links to other mascots (e.g GNU, the OpenBSD blowfish, etc) would be interesting. Start a new category if there isn't one already. --Imroy
The FreeBSD Daemon name ISN'T Chuck. As stated in the FreeBSD.org Faq, his name is simply "FreeBSD Daemon" or "beastie"[1]SncBlue 02:03, 11 March 2006 (UTC)
I would add a link to ThinkGeek, since they carry a variety of Tux-related products, but it seems like that would be violating some general rule of the Wikipedia, since ThinkGeek is a commercial enterprise. Anyone have thoughts on this? --bdesham
Yes. No linkspam. Nothing sets Thinkgeek apart from the rest. --Maru (talk) 18:38, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Attitude

Added word disingenuously to describe attitude that no one noticed that penguin decor resembles a tuxedo. --Ortolan88


[edit] Why Tux?

What does the line in the 2nd para mean : "This may have been why a penguin was chosen, though." It was added by User:LittleDan (on 07:13 March 22). Does he want to say the penguin was chosen as the logo after the name Tux was chosen as the name for the logo ? Wasn't it the other way round, first the penguin was chosen and then a name given for it. --Jay 10:04, Sep 12, 2003 (UTC)

I read somewhere, I can't remember where, that they chose a the name because it was Torvalds UniX, and then made it a penguin because it looks why they're wearing tuxedos. I may be wrong. If so, please delete it. --LDan 00:46, 14 Sep 2003 (UTC)
My Tux web page covers all of the origin stuff in great detail. We could move all of that stuff over here if there is some kind of consensus that it would be appropriate: [2] SteveBaker 22:30, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Image caption

The stuff about the concepts behind tux being developed on mailing lists isn't mentioned in the article itself. Is this actually true? --Lupin 12:18, 27 Aug 2004 (UTC)

That's what the artist says. See external link cited in Tux article [3]. I didn't go back to the lkml to actually review what was said. --Kop 03:07, 28 Aug 2004 (UTC)
I think the captions on the Tux image in Linux and Tux would be better switched, as the Tux article caption is more about Linux and vice versa. But I've had too much back and forth about the Linux caption to want to make the change myself. --Kop 03:07, 28 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] A new tux?

Lots of recent images seem to be based on overlord's South-Park-style tux (see the link at the bottom of the page for a translated CrystalXP forum).

Is this becoming a new unofficial standard?

[[4]]

Since 2002 I'm seeing this Tux [5], I think was introduced by Red Hat.
Remeber this [6] has nothing Tux or nothing related with Linux but an old QuickTime mascot. --Rick Browser 03:09, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Video games list

IIRC, the first Tux game ever was "Tux: A Quest For Herring", http://tuxaqfh.sourceforge.net/ (I wonder why SteveBaker didn't write about it). When I first played it many years ago, it also contained a "racing" level made for some kid contest (afair), which was a real inspiration behind Tux Racer (is it worth noting here? Or in TuxRacer?). Tux was called "Tuxedo T. Penguin" in tux-aqfh. --Lam 14:11, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Tux the Penguin: A Quest for Herring - aka Tux_AQFH - (which I did indeed write) was certainly the first 3D game about Tux - I kinda doubt it was the first game with Tux in it. I thought SuperTux was the first - but I can't find any reference to SuperTux before April 2000. The announcement of Tux_AQFH was on Slashdot on May 6th, 1999. I didn't write about this because it's generally considered bad form for Wikipedians to write about themselves (WP:NOR, etc). Tux_AQFH is no longer supported - I've learned a lot from my mistakes on that game and it's easier to toss it out and write something new than to fix it's problems. However, it got 50,000 downloads in 24 hours when we announced it on Slashdot - it was subsequently ported to BSD, Windows, Mac, SunOS and Irix. I also wrote TuxKart (which was much more successful and fun to play IMHO - I think that's the 'racing' game you are thinking of that may arguably have inspired TuxRacer. I worked heavily with the TuxRacer team providing OpenGL advice, etc - so I was pretty upset when it went closed-source. My son and I are currently writing a 3D game about Lemurs (The Lemur of Lima - yes, we know Lemurs come from Madagascar - but there's a plot point here!) it will have a cameo part for Tux and will be OpenSourced when it gets to a point where we've stopped having too much fun writing it and could use some help! If you have any questions, you know where my talk page is. SteveBaker 15:03, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

The list is almost all redlinks, which tells me they're not notable. And why should it include games with random other penguins? I'll revert to myself, but just once, since it's not a big deal. But seriously, it looks really bad. Melchoir 21:53, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

Agree a whole lot. It's pointless to link to non-existing articles, and I don't think I've heard of any of those games anyway. Haakon 22:36, 1 March 2006 (UTC)
I can agree with not linking to them - but keeping the list together seems worthwhile. I've heard of most of them - and they are mostly Tux games. I'll try to find the time to check out each one and ensure it meets the criteria of having Tux in the game and I'll remove the Wiki links and replace them with website links. SteveBaker 23:35, 1 March 2006 (UTC)
Isn't Tux Racer now a go-karting game, Its apparent that the game which involves sliding down icy hills on his belly is now known as PlanetPenguin Racer (I play it very often). See: http://projects.planetpenguin.de/racer/. 13enzoate 02:01, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
No - I don't think so. The history of TuxRacer is that Jasmin Patry started working on it as a college project in 1999, he did a GPL'ed version in 2000 and continued to maintain and enhance it until August 2001 when he decided to fork the code and take his copy closed source and try to sell it for profit. His company was called 'Sunspire Studios' which no longer appears to exist. Their website is being used for advertising and all of the links there to downloads, FAQs, etc just take you to more adverts. Meanwhile, when the package forked, Nathan Matias maintained and somewhat enhanced the GPL'ed version - calling it 'OpenRacer'. That effort seems to have fizzled within maybe 6 months - although you can still download an play that version. Nowadays we have 'PlanetPenguinRacer' - also derived from that same source code. None of these versions have any GoKarts in them - they feature Tux sliding down snowy/icy courses collecting herring along the way.
The game with the GoKarts is my own 'TuxKart' (which pre-dates TuxRacer but is often confused with it). This was a project I wrote with my son (who designed some of the race tracks and who'se actual 5th grade Math classroom is featured in one of the races because we did a presentation at his school for his math class and we decided to suprise them by using a very detailed model of the actual classroom we were giving the presentation in. Anyway - that project was finished as far as I was concerned when the HappyPenguin.com 'Game Of The Month' (GotM) team decided to put a month of intensive effort into improving TuxKart. This sounded like a good idea - but in fact they totally screwed up the entire thing and ended up with a game that wasn't even playable. I backed out all of their changes and restored the project to it's original state. Meanwhile, the remaining GotM guys forked my code and made a new project called 'SuperTuxKart' - which fizzled very soon after without leaving anything playable. However, just the other day I was approached by someone who wants to try to revive SuperTuxKart and make it work. I've declined to participate in that because I have other OpenSource projects that matter more to me now. However, I wish them well - TuxKart is long overdue for a polish since graphics cards are about 1,000 times faster than they were when TuxKart was written!
So - there's the story. TuxRacer == Penguin sliding down hill on ample stomach. TuxKart == Penguin driving GoKart. Many derivatives and spin-offs of both. SteveBaker 05:02, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
Yes I took a look and found the go-karting game to be called TuxKart, thanks for clearing it up. 13enzoate 14:40, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
People confuse my game (TuxKart) with TuxRacer all the time. It would have been better if TuxRacer had been given a clearer name (Tux Downhill Racer or something). SteveBaker 17:01, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
I added a URL for Tux Typing and a short description from the home page. 13enzoate 03:24, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
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