Word.ws English Dictionary

embrace the penguin

embrace the penguin verb: to switch one's operating system to Linux.

Verb (1)

embrace the penguin (third-person singular simple present embraces the penguin, present participle embracing the penguin, simple past and past participle embraced the penguin)

  1. (idiomatic, slang) To switch one's operating system to Linux.
    • Good idea to embrace the penguin and let go of the Bill.1999 October 23, Rohana Rezel, “Re: Thinking Linux”, in alt.linux (Usenet), message-ID <38121C6F.864D48E2@stud.umist.ac.uk>
    • I have tried gnome on a 440Mhz Ultra10 and a dual 450Mhz Ultra60, and if a P5-200 […] will run it any better I'll throw all of my Suns away tomorrow and embrace the penguin.2002 September 23, tucansam <tucansam@whodis.org>, “Re: Sun Linux desktops”, in comp.sys.sun.misc (Usenet), message-ID <an8u3q$ep5$3@reader1.panix.com>

Verb (2) capitalized: embrace the Penguin

embrace the Penguin (third-person singular simple present embraces the Penguin, present participle embracing the Penguin, simple past and past participle embraced the Penguin)

  1. Alternative letter-case form of embrace the penguin.
    • I embrace the Penguin. best o/s going and all for free ! Enlightenment X window^([sic]) user.1997 December 18, Paul Austin, “hawker harrier,Sr71,A-6 Intruder”, in rec.models.rc.helicopter (Usenet), archived from the original on 20 Oct 2025
    • Try http://www.linux.org for general info & pointers to FAQ's. Good luck, embrace the Penguin !1998 September 17, Paul Sims, “Please help a newbie as noone else will”, in alt.os.linux (Usenet), archived from the original on 20 Oct 2025

Forms of embrace the penguin

third-person singular presentembraces the penguin
present participleembracing the penguin
past participleembraced the penguin
pastembraced the penguin
alternative formembrace the Penguin
third-person singular presentembraces the Penguin
present participleembracing the Penguin
past participleembraced the Penguin
pastembraced the Penguin

Origin of embrace the penguin

A reference to Linux's official mascot, Tux the penguin.

Questions about embrace the penguin

What does embrace the penguin mean?
Embrace the penguin means to switch one's operating system to Linux.
What part of speech is embrace the penguin?
Embrace the penguin is a verb.
What is the past tense of embrace the penguin?
The past tense of embrace the penguin is embraced the penguin.

Words near embrace the penguin in the dictionary

  1. emboîtement
  2. Embra
  3. embracability
  4. embracable
  5. embrace
  6. embrace the penguin
  7. embrace the suck
  8. embrace, extend and extinguish
  9. embraceability
  10. embraceable
  11. embraceably

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: embrace the penguin (page history and authors); embrace the Penguin (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-embrace the penguin.ogg.

Cite this entry: “embrace the penguin.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/embrace_the_penguin. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.