The Linux kernel was first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Because Linux is freely redistributable, anyone may create a distribution for any purpose. Because of the dominance of Android on smartphones, Linux also has the largest installed base of all general-purpose operating systems.
About Linux in brief
Linux is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel. The Linux kernel was first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Because Linux is freely redistributable, anyone may create a distribution for any purpose. Because of the dominance of Android on smartphones, Linux also has the largest installed base of all general-purpose operating systems. Linux is the leading operating system on servers and is the only OS used on TOP500 supercomputers. Linux also runs on embedded systems, i.e. routers, automation controls, smart home technology, televisions, automobiles, digital video recorders, video game consoles, and smartwatches. The Falcon 9’s and the Dragon 2’s avionics use a customized version of Linux. 90% of all cloud infrastructure is powered by Linux. 74% of smartphones in the world are Linux-based. Linux was originally developed for personal computers based on Intel x86 architecture. It has since been ported to more platforms than any other operating system. It is one of the most prominent examples of free and open- source software collaboration. The source code may be used, modified and distributed commercially or non-commercially by anyone under the terms of its respective licenses, such as the GNU General Public License. The Free Software Foundation uses the name GNULinux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy. Popular Linux distributions include Debian, Fedora, and Ubuntu.
Commercial distributions include Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. Linux has also descended from 386BSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, and FreeBSD, which predated that of Linux, and also has also been used by Microsoft, Apple, and other software companies. It was created by Andrew S. Tanenbaum, a computer science professor, in 1987 as a minimal operating system targeted at students and others who wanted to learn about Unix. In 1991, while attending the University of Helsinki, TorvALDs became curious about free software and released the complete source code of MINIX as a free software system. Although the MINIX code was freely available at the time, legal complications prevented it from being free source until the licensing terms were changed in April 2000. In 1992, the first version of the Linux operating system was released, and it is now used by around 2.3 percent of desktop computers in the US K–12 education market and represents nearly 20 percent of sub-$300 notebook sales in the U.S. The operating system is also used by the Google Chrome OS operating system, which dominates the US education market. It also has a desktop environment such as GNOME or KDE Plasma. It can be downloaded from the Google Play store for $99.99 or from the Apple App Store for $199.99. It runs on a wide range of platforms, including the Mac, PC, Macbook, and Macbook Pro, as well as the iPad, iPad mini, iPad Air, and iPad mini.
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This page is based on the article Linux published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 14, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
