The Linux kernel

                                               The Linux kernel

The base of Linux is the kernel. You could replace each and every library, but as long
as the Linux kernel remained, it would still be Linux. The kernel contains device drivers,
memory management, process management and communication management. The kernel
hacker gurus follow POSIX guidelines which sometimes makes programming easier and
sometimes harder. If your program behaves differently on a new Linux kernel release,
chances are that a new POSIX guideline has been implemented. For programming information
about the Linux kernel, read the Linux Kernel Hacker’s Guide.
   

Linux

Linux (lee'nuhks/ or /li'nuks/,_not_/li:'nuhks) is a free and open-sourceoperating system developed by Linus Torvalds and friends and was first announced by Linus in a post he made August 25, 1991. The Linux kernelruns on numerous different platforms including the Intel and Alphaplatform and is available under the GNU General Public License.

The system can be distributed, used, and expanded free of charge. In this way, developers have access to all the source codes, thus being able to integrate new functions or to find and eliminate programming bugs quickly. Thereby drivers for new adapters (SCSI controller, graphics cards, etc.) can be integrated very rapidly.

Linux may be obtained in two different ways. All the necessary components can be downloaded free of charge from the Internet. This means that an individual operating system can be assembled for almost nothing. An alternative is to use a so-called Distribution, offered by various companies and including a wide range of applications and installation programs that significantly simplify the installation of Linux.

Presently, Linux is successfully being used by several millions of users worldwide. The composition of user groups varies from private users, training companies, universities, research centers right through to commercial users and companies, who view Linux as a real alternative to other operating systems.

Linux distributions, flavors, and variants

There are hundreds of different distributions of Linux that have been released. Below are just a few that we currently have listed on our site. A great site that lists almost every distribution as well as rankings is DistroWatch.

• CentOS
• Chrome OS
• Crunchbang Linux
• Damn Small Linux (DSL)
• Debian
• Gentoo
• Linpus Linux
• Puppy Linux
• Rasbian
• Red Hat
• Slackware Linux
• SparkyLinux
• SUSE Linux
• Ubuntu
• VectorLinux