What Is Linux? 
What Is Linux? |
Get
Help From Horus The golden Heru'wer graphics used on this
page are from http://www.kemet.org.
They are used with permission. Thanks, folks, and Ankh Udja Seneb!
|
Linux
is a Posix - compliant operating system very similar in most respects
to Unix. It is the work of a collaborative community of thousands of
developers working together over the internet, and is distributed
freely to all who want to use it. The distribution of Linux is
controlled by the GNU General
Public License.
Technically, only the kernel or operating system core is actually
Linux, but most complete Linux systems include a huge bundle of
other software packages with them. It is now common usage to
refer to such a bundle as a distribution of Linux, even though it is
really much more than that. Through the generous contributions of GNU and the Free Software Foundation, powerful tools were made available for Linux that had a profound effect on its growth and development. Others contributed (and continue to contribute) as well, and the growth and continued success of Linux seemed for a while to be all but assured... Then, as so often in human history, greed reared its ugly head, and Linux has now become the focus of a series of sordid legal disputes being pressed by The SCO Group, who are trying to claim that they have the legal right to control licensing of Linux use by reason(?) of their ownership of Unix System V. For more on this, see question #9 of the FAQ, please. |
| This
webpage was created with Mozilla Composer for Linux. Cleanup was
completed with KATE, the KDE Advanced Text Editor. Graphics were
manipulated using The GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program). For
best viewing, set your video resolution to at least 800 X 600 pixels,
at least 16-bit color depth. |