| General Information about Linux
Linux is an operating system that was initially created as a hobby by a young student, Linus Torvalds, at the University of Helsinki in Finland. Linus had an interest in Minix, a small UNIX system, and decided to develop a system that exceeded the Minix standards. He began his work in 1991 when he released version 0.02 and worked steadily until 1994 when version 1.0 of the Linux Kernel was released. The current full featured version is 2.0, and development continues with several updates that are available for public use.
Linux is developed under the GNU General Public License and its source code
is freely available to everyone. This however, dosen't mean Linux and it's
assorted distributions are free. Companies and
developers may charge money for it as long as the source code remains
available. Linux may be used for a wide variety of purposes including
networking, software development, and as an end user platform. Linux is
often considered an excellent, low cost alternative to other more
expensive operating systems.
Due to the very nature of Linux's functionality and availability, it has
become popular worldwide and a vast number of software programmers have
taken Linux's source code and adapted it to suit their individual needs.
At this time there are dozens of on-going projects for porting Linux to
various hardware configurations and purposes.
Linux has an official mascot, the Linux Penguin, which was selected by
Linus Torvalds to represent the image he associates with the operating
system he created.
Although many variations of the word Linux exist, it is most often
pronounced with a short "i" and with the first syllable stressed, as in
LIH-nucks. |
