Technically, Linux is a Unix-like, kernel-based, fully memory-protected, multitasking operating system originally developed by Linus Torvalds at the University of Helsinki in 1991 and distributed under the GNU General Public License.
In
English, Please
Confused? Don't be. All
you need to know is that Linux is a robust, powerful, compact, and free
operating system that runs on hardware ranging from PCs and Macs to Amigas
and Alphas and more. Linux is also a group effort: thousands of developers
around the world contribute to Linux, adding new features, fixing bugs,
and generally trying to improve things whenever they can.
Open
Source
Linux is more than just
free, it's open-source software. That means you not only get access
to the compiled programs that you run on your machine, you can also get
the original computer code to examine and tweak at your leisure.
Linux
Blossoms
All these benefits have
attracted a lot of attention. Way back in March of 1998, Linux distributor
Red Hat estimated that there were some 8 million Linux users worldwide--and
that was before the recent big Linux push. Research firm International
Data Corporation reports that the Linux server market has ballooned
to some 750,000 installations--and that number's still growing.
Oh, and it's usually pronounced
"Lih-nucks" by people in the know.
