Xenia (LinuxFox)

About

Xenia, also known as LinuxFox is a fox character created by Alan Mackey in 1996 as a potential mascot for the Linux operating system. While the character wasn't chosen, interest in the character was revived in 2019 after its rediscovery.

Origin

The earliest known artwork of Xenia was created by Alan Mackey on July 14th, 1996 (shown below, left) and posted to his brother Ed Mackey's website along with possible webpage buttons using the fox.^[1] In 1999, LinuxFox would be reused as the logo for The fOX Project (shown below, right).^[2]

Spread

Interest in LinuxFox returned on November 20th, 2019, when Twitter user cathodegaytube made a tweet about the character and posted a redraw (shown below) upon hearing about LinuxFox from her girlfriend AmyWrightDev.^[3] Later that day, AmyWrightDev gave LinuxFox the name "Xenia" (shown below, right).^[4]

Over the years, cathodegaytube continued posting artwork of Xenia. On June 6th, 2020, @cathodegaytube^[5] posted art of Xenia saying "Trans Rights," gaining over 2,200 retweets and 4,800 likes in three years (shown below, left). On May 29th, 2023, they^[6] posted a piece that gained over 360 retweets and 1,400 likes in one week (shown below, right).

Other artists posted work of Xenia as well in the years since the character's rediscovery. On March 9th, 2022, Twitter user @Rinidisc^[7] posted art that gained over 170 retweets and 460 likes in one year (shown below, left). On April 4th, 2021, user @flying_hyena^[8] posted art of the character, gaining over 800 retweets and 1,800 likes in two years (shown below, right).

Various Examples

External References