What is Linux
Linux(TM) is a free and open source implementation of Unix operating system for several computer architectures: Intel 386, Alpha, SPARC, PowerPC, Motorola, IBM and others. Strictly speaking one defines:
Linux, the operating system kernel
GNU/Linux, the kernel + the GNU C/C++ compiler and the GNU utilities
BSD (Berkeley Univeristy Unix) networking utilities
XFree86, the free X Window System, mantained by the X Consortium
Linux, the operating system kernel, was
created in 1991 by Linus Torvalds, who at the time was a computer
science student at Helsinki University. He now continues to
mantain the Linux kernel, which is an open sorce big project at
which many hackers around the world are contributing. You can
download the latest kernel version (stable or in-development) at
www.kernel.org
Linux is a POSIX (Portable Operating System Interface X)
operating system; this in simple words mean that it can be easily
ported to different architectures.
Nowadays, there are
many Linux
distributions who put
everything together (kernel, Unix GNU utilities, networking,
XFree86, some nice desktop environments like KDEand
GNOME,
and a lot of software) and provide you with a very complete and
mature operating system.
You
can download for free or buy very cheaply a complete Linux
distribution , since
Linux and most of the software that comes with it are under the
GNU
Public License (GPL) .