Xenia, the fox girl mascot of Linux, was first designed in 1996 by Alan Mackey. She was meant to be an alternative to Tux, the official mascot.

She had fallen into obscurity, but was noticed by a Twitter user in 2019 and was redrawn as a fox girl. But as it turned out, Xenia was originally meant to be male! The original creator, Alan, was cool with this, saying "It matches the transition of a lot of the smartest, nerdiest Linux users I know" and "And sure, you made her trans!".

So now we have a trans Linux mascot. And I think that's neat.


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  • belligerentkitten [they/them, it/its]M
    ·
    16 days ago

    i've been a mac/linux person for a long long time but i've just kind of happened across the money for a macbook a couple times which has kept me from having to go full linux - i got one from a uni course a few years ago. this one is nowhere near obsolete and i'm sure i have years left with it. but helping my partner set up a linux laptop has made me feel p good about the fact that simply there is no financial way for me to continue my mac habit. i've been kinda stuck on it for so long partly due to disability because for some reason the macbooks give me way less pain to use. but money is money no matter how disabled i am, and i think i could cope with the same laptop as they have, physically, and mentally i am feeling good about a linux switch. so i'd already been thinking a lot about linux when i saw this adorable trans mascot post. so thank you!

    • glans [it/its]
      ·
      16 days ago

      Do like Xenia does and get a thinkpad. My main computer is a $200 refurb thinkpad from eBay. They are known for good Linux support and because they are popular there is a big online community in case of trouble.

      But your existing apple hardware can last a long time with Linux. Unlike Mac os it isn't designed to get shitty after a few years to encourage buying a new one. I also have a 10+ years old Mac mini as a secondary computer and it runs decently with Debian.

      • belligerentkitten [they/them, it/its]M
        ·
        16 days ago

        i like my power i'm afraid, and i'm not really interested in a second computer. i'm more likely gonna just like try and save enough money over the next few years for a gaming laptop since i know i have a long time left in this one. i have considered installing linux on this laptop though. i looked into it a few years ago and saw that there was something in development for the M1 chips but that it wasn't finished at the time, so i kinda shelved it. but maybe i should check back in. it seemed like the new chip architechture needed some work done before linux could actually run.

        • Luna [she/her, sie/hir]M
          ·
          edit-2
          16 days ago

          Are you talking about Asahi Linux? I run it on my M2, and it runs pretty smoothly. Only issue I've had is software compatibility, but that's an issue with all ARM devices running Linux (somewhat remedied by certain Flatpaks).

          Something to note that I forgot to mention: Tor Browser does not run on Asahi AFAIK, so do with that what you will.

          • belligerentkitten [they/them, it/its]M
            ·
            15 days ago

            yeah i am. i checked it out last night after i metioned it, it does seem way more stable than last time i looked into it. Tor not working is a bit of a problem for me tho, thanks for the heads up. i might have to wait until that changes.