Why Linux is portrayed as a Penguin?

  • Lettuce eat lettuce@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    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.

      • WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        I honestly didn’t know people pronounced it any other way than gee-en-you. It’s in all caps, so I figured you said each letter.

        Now that I think more about it though, I don’t know why I assumed that. I don’t say AWOL as ay-doubleyou-oh-el. I don’t say SNAFU as es-en-ay-ef-you.

        I’m just going to call it the OS for yaks from now on and never think about it again.

          • griefreeze@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I’ve spent nearly 20 years in academia and professional software development and have never heard anyone pronounce it Gee-you-eye, funnily enough.

            Gonna try it this week and see how many people look at me like I’m crazy.

            Edit: spelling

              • griefreeze@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                I think the distinction is kinda pointless anyways. As long as the information is conveyed I don’t really care about acronym/initialism pronounciation.

          • WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            1 year ago

            For whatever reason, I always drop the G and just call it the UI. This thread is making me think that I don’t actually say anything the right way.

          • Wojwo@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            I had textbooks in college (25 years ago) that always had little blurbs about the acronyms and their pronunciation. GUI, we were instructed, was pronounced gooey. WYSIWYG is wiz-ee-wig, etc. It was on tests IIRC.

      • Murdoc@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Like much of my early language skills, I learned it from Sesame Street:
        “Remember: No g-news is good g-news with Gary Gnu!” 😛

    • jelloeater - Ops Mgr@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Holy smokes. 1000x this. You want Linux to be popular, stop gatekeeping it and being a hipster. OSX is a great example of how to make a Unix like OS popular with NORMAL people.

      Grandma doesn’t care what kernel she’s running and … Hint hint, neither do I. I just want my computer to work and be easy to maintain.

      I run Ubuntu, not because it’s the best, but became it just works. I might swap to Mint or PopOS, but that takes time out of my life which I’d rather spend coding or working out.

      You want Linux to win on the desktop, you have to get manufacturers to make it the default, and good luck getting Dell or HP to change.

      Heck most folks don’t even own a computer now a days.

      Be happy Android won on mobile and Linux won on servers. ❤️

    • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      I wonder how far back Richard Stallman set the free software movement by being absolutely cock slamming terrible at naming things. “I’m going to name my operating system after the sound my throat makes while swallowing a whole goldfish.”