Tux

Tux is the mascot of Linux: a plump, contented penguin drawn by Larry Ewing in 1996 using GIMP, and released for anyone to use with nothing more than attribution. Linus Torvalds wanted a penguin, reportedly with the conviction of a man once pecked by one at an Australian zoo, and the community delivered. Tux has since appeared on billions of devices, in video games, and on every sticker-covered laptop in every computer science building on Earth. Arguably the most successful piece of free-culture character design ever made.