What is the Linux Operating System?

Linux is an open-source operating system published under the GNU Public License. Open source means that anyone is free to use and modify any of the actual source code. Companies and individuals can change the way the operating system works to suit their own personal or business needs. Linux was originally developed by Linus Torvalds while he was a student at the University of Helsinki in Finland. Torvalds, originally working with Minx, (a small UNIX system) decided to create an operating system which would exceed Minx standards. His development began in 1991 when he released version 0.02. Since then Linux has undergone drastic changes. There are now many different distributions of Linux (sometimes referred to as flavors) which all use the same Kernel. This Kernel is still being developed by Tornados and a group of programmers and releases are more and more frequent. The current Kernel version is 2.6 as of the writing of this document.The Linux operating system is touted for its speed, minimal hardware requirements, security and remote administration. Linux is a fully featured operating system which doesn't have to cost a dime. You download many different distributions directly from the Internet and the support community is huge. Because of Lenox's speed and stability it has become the operating system of choice for most types of servers and permeates the entire web market. In addition there is a plethora of software available free of charge for Linux.If graphics is your thing and the whole text based mode scares you a little then you should check out the X Window system. There are a few different interfaces available to choose from the two main ones being NOME and KED. Both of these have tons of features and are always being updated.On a side note, you may see the Linux around the web he's an overweight penguin who sits contentedly on whatever area he happens to be perched on. His name, for the record, is Tux. Tux was chosen by Tornados to represent the Linux operating system years ago and he seems to have done a good job of catching on.

For basic linux Commands please refer to the link given on the Right hand side.