What is Linux

Lucysmith

Linux is an operating system that was initially created as a hobby by a young student, Linus Torvalds, at the University of Helsinki in Finland. Linus had an interest in Minix, a small UNIX system, and decided to develop a system that exceeded the Minix standards. He began his work in 1991 when he released version 0.02 and worked steadily until 1994 when version 1.0 of the Linux Kernel was released. The kernel, at the heart of all Linux systems, is developed and released under the GNU General Public License and its source code is freely available to everyone. It is this kernel that forms the base around which a Linux operating system is developed. There are now literally hundreds of companies and organizations and an equal number of individuals that have released their own versions of operating systems based on the Linux kernel. More information on the kernel can be found at our sister site, LinuxHQ and at the official Linux Kernel Archives. The current full-featured version is 2.6 (released December 2003) and development continues. OR Linux (commonly pronounced IPA: /ˈlɪnəks/ in English; variants exist[1]) is a Unix-like computer operating system family based on the Linux kernel. Linux is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software development; typically all the underlying source code can be used, freely modified, and redistributed by anyone. Linux distributions are predominantly known for their use in servers, although they are installed on a wide variety of computer hardware, ranging from embedded devices and mobile phones to supercomputers, and their popularity as a desktop/laptop operating system is growing due to the rise of netbooks and the Ubuntu distribution of the operating system. The name "Linux" comes from the Linux kernel, originally written in 1991 by Linus Torvalds. The system's utilities and libraries usually come from the GNU operating system, announced in 1983 by Richard Stallman. The GNU contribution is the basis for the alternative name GNU/Linux. For more details on the topic, you can visit the links below: Linux Online - About the Linux Operating System Linux - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

SarasotaSlim

To bring the 'what is linux' down to a more concrete level, you
(the reader) need to understand that there are 'sub-families' of
Linux distributions (also called 'distros' for short). The major
families relate mostly to the software-distribution facility and
the repositories of software (that you upgrade and install
additional software from).

One family is 'RPM' package based. (RPM is 'Redhat Package Manager',
I think.) There are many distros based on this, including Redhat, Fedora,
Mandriva, and SUSE, to name a few. [Hope I have those right.]

Another family is 'DEB' packaged based. This family is the one I'm most
familiar with, and includes distros such as Debian (hence the name 'DEB'),
Ubuntu/Kubuntu, Mepis,sidux (and obviously some others that I haven't tried
or since forgotten).

With just that much additional info, now go and bookmark the website
called 'DistroWatch'
DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD.
which is an excellent place to learn about all the choices and stay
up with the news on each of the MANY Linux distros out there.

Regards...

SarasotaSlim [ex-distro 'junkie', who has now settled on Mepis and sidux]

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sidux/KDE-4 and MEPIS rule!