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Defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel. Linux is a leading server operating system, and runs the 10 fastest supercomputers. The development of Linux is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software.

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INTRODUCTION TO LINUX

Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds Linux system distributions may vary in many details of system operation, configuration, and software package selections. Linux runs on a wide variety of computer hardware, including mobile phones, tablet computers, network routers, televisions, video game consoles, desktop computers, mainframes and supercomputers Linux is a leading server operating system, and runs the 10 fastest supercomputers in the world.[18] In addition, more than 90% of today's supercomputers run some variant of Linux. The development of Linux is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software collaboration: the underlying source code may be used, modified, and distributed commercially or non-commerciallyby anyone under licenses such as the GNU General Public License. Typically Linux is packaged in a format known as a Linux distribution for desktop and server use. Some popular mainstream Linux distributions include Debian (and its derivatives such as Ubuntu), Fedora and openSUSE. Linux distributions include the Linux kernel, supporting utilities and libraries and usually a large amount of application software to fulfill the distribution's intended use.

HISTORY
Linux was developed by Linus Torvalds in 1991 and a band of programmers who voluntarily developed the core program of the system (aka, the kernel). That program was originally compatible for another operating system called Minix, but later development made it usable with GNU software.

GNU
GNU is pronounced like the animal and stands for 'GNU's Not Unix.' It was a project conceived by Richard Stallman in 1983 in response to the increasing tendency of software companies to copyright their software under terms that prohibited sharing. GNU's purpose: to develop a wholly free system. It had achieved significant progress toward this goal by the time that Linus and others had developed their kernel in the 1990s. While many people refer to the combination of the two as "Linux", this is not wholly correct. The kernel combined with GNU's free software is properly called "GNU/Linux." Both the kernel and the software are freely available under licensing that is sometimes called "copyleft" (as opposed to copyright). Where traditional copyright was meant to restrict usage and ownership of a copyrighted item to as few people as possible, inhibiting development and growth, GNU/Linux is different. It is released under terms designed to ensure that as many people as possible are allowed to receive, use, share, and modify the software. That license is called the GPL (GNU Public Licence).

LINUX KERNEL
A kernel is the lowest level of easily replaceable software that interfaces with the hardware in your computer. It is responsible for interfacing all of your applications that are running in user mode down to the physical hardware, and allowing processes, known as servers, to get information from each other using inter-process communication (IPC). The Linux kernel is an operating system kernel used by the Linux family of Unix-like operating systems. It is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software. The Linux kernel is released under the GNU General Public License version 2 (GPLv2) (plus some firmware images with various non-free licenses), and is developed by contributors worldwide. Day-to-day development discussions take place on the Linux kernel mailing list. The Linux kernel was initially conceived and created by Finnish computer science student Linus Torvalds in 1991. Linux rapidly accumulated developers and users who adapted code from other

free software projects for use with the new operating system. The Linux kernel has received contributions from thousands of programmers Many Linux distributions have been released based upon the Linux kernel.