The Linux kernel was designed byLinus Torvalds, following the lack of a workingkernel forGNU, aUnix-compatible operating system made entirely offree software that had been undergoing development since 1983 byRichard Stallman. A working Unix system calledMinix was later released but its license was not entirely free at the time[32] and it was made for an educative purpose. The first entirely free Unix for personal computers,386BSD, did not appear until 1992, by which time Torvalds had already built and publicly released the first version of theLinux kernel on theInternet.[33] Like GNU and 386BSD, Linux did not have any Unix code, being a fresh reimplementation, and therefore avoided thethen legal issues.[34] Linux distributions became popular in the 1990s and effectively made Unix technologies accessible to home users on personal computers whereas previously it had been confined to sophisticatedworkstations.[35]
Thesource code of Linux may be used, modified, and distributed commercially or non-commercially by anyone under the terms of its respective licenses, such as theGNU General Public License (GPL). The license means creating novel distributions is permitted by anyone[36] and is easier than it would be for an operating system such asMacOS orMicrosoft Windows.[37][38][39] The Linux kernel, for example, is licensed under the GPLv2, with an exception forsystem calls that allows code that calls the kernel via system calls not to be licensed under the GPL.[40][41][36]
TheUnix operating system was conceived of and implemented in 1969, atAT&T'sBell Labs in the United States, byKen Thompson,Dennis Ritchie,Douglas McIlroy, andJoe Ossanna.[59] First released in 1971, Unix was written entirely inassembly language, as was common practice at the time. In 1973, in a key pioneering approach, it was rewritten in theC programming language by Dennis Ritchie (except for some hardware and I/O routines). The availability of ahigh-level language implementation of Unix made itsporting to different computer platforms easier.[60]
As a 1956antitrust case forbade AT&T from entering the computer business,[61] AT&T provided the operating system'ssource code to anyone who asked. As a result, Unix use grew quickly and it became widely adopted byacademic institutions and businesses. In 1984,AT&T divested itself of itsregional operating companies, and was released from its obligation not to enter the computer business; freed of that obligation, Bell Labs began selling Unix as aproprietary product, where users were not legally allowed to modify it.[62][63]
Onyx Systems began selling early microcomputer-based Unix workstations in 1980. Later,Sun Microsystems, founded as a spin-off of a student project atStanford University, also began selling Unix-based desktop workstations in 1982. While Sun workstations did not use commodity PC hardware, for which Linux was later originally developed, it represented the first successful commercial attempt at distributing a primarily single-user microcomputer that ran a Unix operating system.[64][65]
While attending theUniversity of Helsinki in the fall of 1990, Torvalds enrolled in a Unix course.[69] The course used aMicroVAX minicomputer runningUltrix, and one of the required texts wasOperating Systems: Design and Implementation byAndrew S. Tanenbaum. This textbook included a copy of Tanenbaum'sMinix operating system. It was with this course that Torvalds first became exposed to Unix. In 1991, he became curious about operating systems.[70] Frustrated by the licensing of Minix, which at the time limited it to educational use only,[68] he began to work on his operating system kernel, which eventually became the Linux kernel.
On July 3, 1991, to implement Unixsystem calls, Linus Torvalds attempted unsuccessfully to obtain a digital copy of thePOSIX standardsdocumentation with a request to thecomp.os.minixnewsgroup.[71] After not finding the POSIX documentation, Torvalds initially resorted to determining system calls fromSunOS documentation owned by the university for use in operating itsSun Microsystems server. He also learned some system calls from Tanenbaum's Minix text.
Torvalds began the development of the Linux kernel on Minix and applications written for Minix were also used on Linux. Later, Linux matured and further Linux kernel development took place on Linux systems.[72] GNU applications also replaced all Minix components, because it was advantageous to use the freely available code from the GNU Project with the fledgling operating system; code licensed under the GNU GPL can be reused in other computer programs as long as they also are released under the same or a compatible license. Torvalds initiated a switch from his original license, which prohibited commercial redistribution, to the GNU GPL.[73] Developers worked to integrate GNU components with the Linux kernel, creating a fully functional and free operating system.[74]
Although not released until 1992, due tolegal complications, the development of386BSD, from whichNetBSD,OpenBSD andFreeBSD descended, predated that of Linux. Linus Torvalds has stated that if theGNU kernel or 386BSD had been available in 1991, he probably would not have created Linux.[75][32]
5.25-inchfloppy disks holding a very early version of Linux
Linus Torvalds had wanted to call his invention "Freax", aportmanteau of "free", "freak", and "x" (as an allusion to Unix). During the start of his work on the system, some of the project'smakefiles included the name "Freax" for about half a year. Torvalds considered the name "Linux" but dismissed it as too egotistical.[76]
To facilitate development, the files were uploaded to theFTP server ofFUNET in September 1991. Ari Lemmke, Torvalds' coworker at theHelsinki University of Technology (HUT) who was one of the volunteer administrators for the FTP server at the time, did not think that "Freax" was a good name, so he named the project "Linux" on the server without consulting Torvalds.[76] Later, however, Torvalds consented to "Linux".
According to anewsgroup post by Torvalds,[16] the word "Linux" should be pronounced (/ˈlɪnʊks/ⓘLIN-uuks) with a short 'i' as in 'print' and 'u' as in 'put'. To further demonstrate how the word "Linux" should be pronounced, he included an audio guide with the kernel source code.[77] However, in this recording, he pronounces Linux as/ˈlinʊks/ (LEEN-uuks) with a short butclose front unrounded vowel, instead of anear-close near-front unrounded vowel as in his newsgroup post.
The adoption of Linux in production environments, rather than being used only by hobbyists, started to take off first in the mid-1990s in the supercomputing community, where organizations such asNASA started replacing their increasingly expensive machines withclusters of inexpensive commodity computers running Linux. Commercial use began whenDell andIBM, followed byHewlett-Packard, started offering Linux support to escapeMicrosoft's monopoly in the desktop operating system market.[78]
Today, Linux systems are used throughout computing, fromembedded systems to virtually allsupercomputers,[52][79] and have secured a place in server installations such as the popularLAMP application stack. The use of Linux distributions in home and enterprise desktops has been growing.[80][81][82][83][84][85][86]
Linux distributions have also become popular in thenetbook market, with many devices shipping with customized Linux distributions installed, and Google releasing their ownChromeOS designed for netbooks.
Linux's greatest success in the consumer market is perhaps the mobile device market, with Android being the dominant operating system onsmartphones and very popular ontablets and, more recently, onwearables, and vehicles.Linux gaming is also on the rise withValve showing its support for Linux and rolling outSteamOS, its own gaming-oriented Linux distribution, which was later implemented in theirSteam Deck platform. Linux distributions have also gained popularity with various local and national governments, such as the federal government ofBrazil.[87]
Linus Torvalds is the lead maintainer for the Linux kernel and guides its development, whileGreg Kroah-Hartman is the lead maintainer for the stable branch.[88]Zoë Kooyman is the executive director of the Free Software Foundation,[89] which in turn supports the GNU components.[90] Finally, individuals and corporations develop third-party non-GNU components. These third-party components comprise a vast body of work and may include both kernel modules and user applications and libraries.
Linux vendors and communities combine and distribute the kernel, GNU components, and non-GNU components, with additionalpackage management software in the form of Linux distributions.
Many developers ofopen-source software agree that the Linux kernel was not designed but ratherevolved throughnatural selection. Torvalds considers that although the design of Unix served as a scaffolding, "Linux grew with a lot of mutations – and because the mutations were less than random, they were faster and more directed thanalpha-particles in DNA."[91]Eric S. Raymond considers Linux's revolutionary aspects to be social, not technical: before Linux, complex software was designed carefully by small groups, but "Linux evolved in a completely different way. From nearly the beginning, it was rather casually hacked on by huge numbers of volunteers coordinating only through the Internet. Quality was maintained not by rigid standards or autocracy but by the naively simple strategy of releasing every week and getting feedback from hundreds of users within days, creating a sort of rapid Darwinian selection on the mutations introduced by developers."[92]Bryan Cantrill, an engineer of a competing OS, agrees that "Linux wasn't designed, it evolved", but considers this to be a limitation, proposing that some features, especially those related to security,[93] cannot be evolved into, "this is not a biological system at the end of the day, it's a software system."[94]
A Linux-based system is a modular Unix-like operating system, deriving much of its basic design from principles established in Unix during the 1970s and 1980s. Such a system uses amonolithic kernel, the Linux kernel, which handles process control, networking, access to theperipherals, andfile systems.Device drivers are either integrated directly with the kernel or added as modules that are loaded while the system is running.[95]
The GNUuserland is a key part of most systems based on the Linux kernel, with Android being a notable exception. TheGNU C library, an implementation of theC standard library, works as a wrapper for the system calls of the Linux kernel necessary to the kernel-userspace interface, thetoolchain is a broad collection of programming tools vital to Linux development (including thecompilers used to build the Linux kernel itself), and thecoreutils implement many basicUnix tools. The GNU Project also developsBash, a popularCLI shell. Thegraphical user interface (or GUI) used by most Linux systems is built on top of an implementation of theX Window System.[96] More recently, some of the Linux community has sought to move to usingWayland as the display server protocol, replacing X11.[97][98]
Many other open-source software projects contribute to Linux systems.
Various layers within Linux, also showing separation between theuserland andkernel space
Installed components of a Linux system include the following:[96][100]
Abootloader, for exampleGNU GRUB,LILO,SYSLINUX orsystemd-boot. This is a program that loads the Linux kernel into the computer'smain memory, by being executed by the computer when it is turned on and after thefirmware initialization is performed.
Aninit program, such as the traditionalsysvinit and the newersystemd,OpenRC andUpstart. This is the firstprocess launched by the Linux kernel, and is at the root of the process tree. It starts processes such as system services and login prompts (whether graphical or in terminal mode).
Software libraries, which contain code that can be used by running processes. On Linux systems usingELF-format executable files, thedynamic linker that manages the use of dynamic libraries is known asld-linux.so. If the system is set up for the user to compile software themselves,header files will also be included to describe theprogramming interface of installed libraries. Besides the most commonly used software library on Linux systems, theGNU C Library (glibc), there are numerous other libraries, such asSDL andMesa.
TheC standard library is the library necessary to run programs written inC on a computer system, with the GNU C Library being the standard. It provides an implementation of the POSIX API, as well as extensions to that API. For embedded systems, alternatives such asmusl,EGLIBC (a glibc fork once used by Debian) anduClibc (which was designed foruClinux) have been developed, although the last two are no longer maintained. Android uses its own C library,Bionic. However, musl can additionally be used as a replacement for glibc on desktop and laptop systems, as seen on certain Linux distributions likeVoid Linux.
Basic Unix commands, with GNU coreutils being the standard implementation. Alternatives exist for embedded systems, such as the copyleftBusyBox, and the BSD-licensedToybox.
Theuser interface, also known as theshell, is either a command-line interface (CLI), a graphical user interface (GUI), or controls attached to the associated hardware, which is common for embedded systems. For desktop systems, the default user interface is usually graphical, although the CLI is commonly available throughterminal emulator windows or on a separatevirtual console.
GNOME Shell
CLI shells are text-based user interfaces, which use text for both input and output. The dominant shell used in Linux is theBourne-Again Shell (bash), originally developed for the GNU Project;other shells such asZsh are also used.[101][102] Most low-level Linux components, including various parts of theuserland, use the CLI exclusively. The CLI is particularly suited for automation of repetitive or delayed tasks and provides very simpleinter-process communication.
On desktop systems, the most popular user interfaces are theGUI shells, packaged together with extensivedesktop environments, such asKDE Plasma,GNOME,MATE,Cinnamon,LXDE,Pantheon, andXfce, though a variety of additional user interfaces exist. Most popular user interfaces are based on the X Window System, often simply called "X" or "X11". It providesnetwork transparency and permits a graphical application running on one system to be displayed on another where a user may interact with the application; however, certain extensions of the X Window System are not capable of working over the network.[103] Several X display servers exist, with the reference implementation,X.Org Server, being the most popular.
Several types ofwindow managers exist for X11, includingtiling,dynamic,stacking, andcompositing. Window managers provide means to control the placement and appearance of individual application windows, and interact with the X Window System. SimplerX window managers such asdwm,ratpoison, ori3wm provide aminimalist functionality, while more elaborate window managers such asFVWM,Enlightenment, orWindow Maker provide more features such as a built-intaskbar andthemes, but are still lightweight when compared to desktop environments. Desktop environments include window managers as part of their standard installations, such asMutter (GNOME),KWin (KDE), orXfwm (xfce), although users may choose to use a different window manager if preferred.
Wayland is a display server protocol intended as a replacement for the X11 protocol; as of 2022[update], it has received relatively wide adoption.[104] Unlike X11, Wayland does not need an external window manager and compositing manager. Therefore, a Wayland compositor takes the role of the display server, window manager, and compositing manager. Weston is the reference implementation of Wayland, while GNOME's Mutter and KDE's KWin are being ported to Wayland as standalone display servers. Enlightenment has already been successfully ported since version 19.[105] Additionally, many window managers have been made for Wayland, such as Sway or Hyprland, as well as other graphical utilities such as Waybar or Rofi.
Linux currently has two modern kernel-userspace APIs for handling video input devices:V4L2 API for video streams and radio, andDVB API for digital TV reception.[106]
Due to the complexity and diversity of different devices, and due to the large number of formats and standards handled by those APIs, this infrastructure needs to evolve to better fit other devices. Also, a good userspace device library is the key to the success of having userspace applications to be able to work with all formats supported by those devices.[107][108]
Simplified history of Unix-like operating systems. Linux shares similar architecture and concepts (as part of thePOSIX standard) but does not share non-free source code with the originalUnix or Minix.
The primary difference between Linux and many other popular contemporary operating systems is that the Linux kernel and other components are free and open-source software. Linux is not the only such operating system, although it is by far the most widely used.[109] Somefree andopen-source software licenses are based on the principle ofcopyleft, a kind of reciprocity: any work derived from a copyleft piece of software must also be copyleft itself. The most common free software license, the GNU General Public License (GPL), is a form of copyleft and is used for the Linux kernel and many of the components from the GNU Project.[110]
Linux-based distributions are intended by developers forinteroperability with other operating systems and established computing standards. Linux systems adhere to POSIX,[111]Single UNIX Specification (SUS),[112]Linux Standard Base (LSB),ISO, andANSI standards where possible, although to date only one Linux distribution has been POSIX.1 certified, Linux-FT.[113][114]The Open Group has tested and certified at least two Linux distributions as qualifying for the Unix trademark,EulerOS andInspur K-UX.[115]
Free software projects, although developed throughcollaboration, are often produced independently of each other. The fact that the software licenses explicitly permit redistribution, however, provides a basis for larger-scale projects that collect the software produced by stand-alone projects and make it available all at once in the form of a Linux distribution.
Many Linux distributions manage a remote collection of system software and application software packages available for download and installation through a network connection. This allows users to adapt the operating system to their specific needs. Distributions are maintained by individuals, loose-knit teams, volunteer organizations, and commercial entities. A distribution is responsible for the default configuration of the installed Linux kernel, general system security, and more generally integration of the different software packages into a coherent whole. Distributions typically use a package manager such asapt,yum,zypper,pacman orportage to install, remove, and update all of a system's software from one central location.[116]
A distribution is largely driven by its developer and user communities. Some vendors develop and fund their distributions on a volunteer basis,Debian being a well-known example. Others maintain a community version of their commercial distributions, asRed Hat does withFedora, andSUSE does withopenSUSE.[117][118]
In many cities and regions, local associations known asLinux User Groups (LUGs) seek to promote their preferred distribution and by extension free software. They hold meetings and provide free demonstrations, training, technical support, and operating system installation to new users. Many Internet communities also provide support to Linux users and developers. Most distributions and free software / open-source projects haveIRC chatrooms ornewsgroups.Online forums are another means of support, with notable examples beingUnix & Linux Stack Exchange,[119][120]LinuxQuestions.org and the various distribution-specific support and community forums, such as ones forUbuntu,Fedora,Arch Linux,Gentoo, etc. Linux distributions hostmailing lists; commonly there will be a specific topic such as usage or development for a given list.
There are several technology websites with a Linux focus. Print magazines on Linux often bundlecover disks that carry software or even complete Linux distributions.[121][122]
Although Linux distributions are generally available without charge, several large corporations sell, support, and contribute to the development of the components of the system and free software. An analysis of the Linux kernel in 2017 showed that well over 85% of the code was developed by programmers who are being paid for their work, leaving about 8.2% to unpaid developers and 4.1% unclassified.[123] Some of the major corporations that provide contributions includeIntel,Samsung,Google,AMD,Oracle, andFacebook.[123] Several corporations, notably Red Hat,Canonical, andSUSE have built a significant business around Linux distributions.
Thefree software licenses, on which the various software packages of a distribution built on the Linux kernel are based, explicitly accommodate and encourage commercialization; the relationship between a Linux distribution as a whole and individual vendors may be seen assymbiotic. One commonbusiness model of commercial suppliers is charging for support, especially for business users. A number of companies also offer a specialized business version of their distribution, which adds proprietary support packages and tools to administer higher numbers of installations or to simplify administrative tasks.[124]
Another business model is to give away the software to sell hardware. This used to be the norm in the computer industry, with operating systems such asCP/M,Apple DOS, and versions of theclassic Mac OS before 7.6 freely copyable (but not modifiable). As computer hardware standardized throughout the 1980s, it became more difficult for hardware manufacturers to profit from this tactic, as the OS would run on any manufacturer's computer that shared the same architecture.[125][126]
A common feature of Unix-like systems, Linux includes traditional specific-purpose programming languages targeted atscripting, text processing and system configuration and management in general. Linux distributions supportshell scripts,awk,sed andmake. Many programs also have an embedded programming language to support configuring or programming themselves. For example,regular expressions are supported in programs likegrep andlocate, the traditional Unix message transfer agentSendmail contains its ownTuring complete scripting system, and the advanced text editorGNU Emacs is built around a general purposeLisp interpreter.[130][131][132]
The Linux kernel is a widely ported operating system kernel, available for devices ranging from mobile phones to supercomputers; it runs on a highly diverse range ofcomputer architectures, includingARM-based Android smartphones and theIBM Z mainframes. Specialized distributions and kernel forks exist for less mainstream architectures; for example, theELKS kernelfork can run onIntel 8086 orIntel 80286 16-bit microprocessors,[134] while theμClinux kernel fork may run on systems without amemory management unit.[135] The kernel also runs on architectures that were only ever intended to use a proprietary manufacturer-created operating system, such asMacintosh computers[136][137] (withPowerPC,Intel, andApple silicon processors),PDAs,video game consoles,portable music players, and mobile phones.
Linux has a reputation for supporting old hardware very well by maintaining standardized drivers for a long time.[138] There are several industry associations and hardwareconferences devoted to maintaining and improving support for diverse hardware under Linux, such asFreedomHEC. Over time, support for different hardware has improved in Linux, resulting in any off-the-shelf purchase having a "good chance" of being compatible.[139]
In 2014, a new initiative was launched to automatically collect a database of all tested hardware configurations.[140]
Many quantitative studies of free/open-source software focus on topics including market share and reliability, with numerous studies specifically examining Linux.[141] The Linux market is growing, and the Linux operating system market size is expected to see a growth of 19.2% by 2027, reaching $15.64 billion, compared to $3.89 billion in 2019.[142] Analysts project a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 13.7% between 2024 and 2032, culminating in a market size of US$34.90 billion by the latter year.[citation needed] Analysts and proponents attribute the relative success of Linux to its security, reliability, low cost, and freedom fromvendor lock-in.[143][144]
Desktops and laptops
According toweb server statistics (that is, based on the numbers recorded from visits to websites by client devices), in October 2024, the estimated market share of Linux ondesktop computers was around 4.3%. In comparison,Microsoft Windows had a market share of around 73.4%, whilemacOS covered around 15.5%.[45]
Web servers
W3Cook publishes stats that use the top 1,000,000 Alexa domains,[145] which as of May 2015[update] estimate that 96.55% of web servers run Linux, 1.73% run Windows, and 1.72% run FreeBSD.[146]
W3Techs publishes stats that use the top 10,000,000 Alexa domains and the top 1,000,000 Tranco domains, updated monthly[147] and as of November 2020[update] estimate that Linux is used by 39% of the web servers, versus 21.9% being used byMicrosoft Windows.[148] 40.1% used other types of Unix.[149]
IDC's Q1 2007 report indicated that Linux held 12.7% of the overall server market at that time;[150] this estimate was based on the number of Linux servers sold by various companies, and did not include server hardware purchased separately that had Linux installed on it later.
As of 2024, estimates suggest Linux accounts for at least 80% of the public cloud workload, partly thanks to its widespread use in platforms like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.[151][152][153]
ZDNet report that 96.3% of the top one million web servers are running Linux.[154][155]W3Techs state that Linux powers at least 39.2% of websites whose operating system is known, with other estimates saying 55%.[156][157]
Mobile devices
Android, which is based on the Linux kernel, has become the dominant operating system for smartphones. In April 2023, 68.61% of mobile devices accessing websites usingStatCounter were from Android.[158] Android is also a popular operating system for tablets, being responsible for more than 60% of tablet sales as of 2013[update].[159] According to web server statistics, as of October 2021[update] Android has a market share of about 71%, withiOS holding 28%, and the remaining 1% attributed to various niche platforms.[160]
Film production
For years, Linux has been the platform of choice in the film industry. The first major film produced on Linux servers was 1997'sTitanic.[161][162] Since then major studios includingDreamWorks Animation,Pixar,Weta Digital, andIndustrial Light & Magic have migrated to Linux.[163][164][165] According to the Linux Movies Group, more than 95% of the servers and desktops at large animation and visual effects companies use Linux.[166]
Use in government
Linux distributions have also gained popularity with various local and national governments. News of the Russian military creating its own Linux distribution has also surfaced, and has come to fruition as the G.H.ost Project.[167] The Indian state ofKerala has gone to the extent of mandating that all state high schools run Linux on their computers.[168][169]China uses Linux exclusively as the operating system for itsLoongson processor family to achieve technology independence.[170] In Spain, some regions have developed their own Linux distributions, which are widely used in education and official institutions, like gnuLinEx in Extremadura and Guadalinex in Andalusia.France andGermany have also taken steps toward the adoption of Linux.[171] North Korea'sRed Star OS, developed as of 2002[update], is based on a version of Fedora Linux.[172]
The Linux kernel islicensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL), version 2. The GPL requires that anyone who distributes software based on source code under this license must make the originating source code (and any modifications) available to the recipient under the same terms.[173] Other key components of a typical Linux distribution are also mainly licensed under the GPL, but they may use other licenses; many libraries use theGNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), a more permissive variant of the GPL, and theX.Org implementation of the X Window System uses theMIT License.
Torvalds states that the Linux kernel will not move from version 2 of the GPL to version 3.[174][175] He specifically dislikes some provisions in the new license which prohibit the use of the software indigital rights management.[176] It would also be impractical to obtain permission from all the copyright holders, who number in the thousands.[177]
A 2001 study ofRed Hat Linux 7.1 found that this distribution contained 30 millionsource lines of code.[178] Using theConstructive Cost Model, the study estimated that this distribution required about eight thousand person-years of development time. According to the study, if all this software had been developed by conventional proprietary means, it would have cost aboutUS$1.86 billion[179] to develop in 2024 in the United States.[178] Most of the source code (71%) was written in the C programming language, but many other languages were used, includingC++,Lisp, assembly language, Perl, Python,Fortran, and variousshell scripting languages. Slightly over half of all lines of code were licensed under the GPL. The Linux kernel itself was 2.4 million lines of code, or 8% of the total.[178]
In a later study, the same analysis was performed for Debian version 4.0 (etch, which was released in 2007).[180] This distribution contained close to 283 million source lines of code, and the study estimated that it would have required about seventy three thousand man-years and costUS$10.4 billion[179] (in 2024 dollars) to develop by conventional means.
The name "Linux" is also used for a laundry detergent made by Swiss company Rösch.[181]
In the United States, the nameLinux is a trademark registered to Linus Torvalds.[15] Initially, nobody registered it. However, on August 15, 1994, William R. Della Croce Jr. filed for the trademarkLinux, and then demanded royalties from Linux distributors. In 1996, Torvalds and some affected organizations sued him to have the trademark assigned to Torvalds, and, in 1997, the case was settled.[182] The licensing of the trademark has since been handled by theLinux Mark Institute (LMI). Torvalds has stated that he trademarked the name only to prevent someone else from using it. LMI originally charged a nominal sublicensing fee for use of the Linux name as part of trademarks,[183] but later changed this in favor of offering a free, perpetual worldwide sublicense.[184]
Tux sometimes is stylized with incorporation of theGNU logo
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) prefersGNU/Linux as the name when referring to the operating system as a whole, because it considers Linux distributions to bevariants of the GNU operating system initiated in 1983 byRichard Stallman, president of the FSF.[29][30] The foundation explicitly takes no issue over the name Android for the Android OS, which is also an operating system based on the Linux kernel, as GNU is not a part of it.
A minority of public figures and software projects other than Stallman and the FSF, notably distributions consisting of only free software, such as Debian (which had been sponsored by the FSF up to 1996),[185] also useGNU/Linux when referring to the operating system as a whole.[186][187][188] Most media and common usage, however, refers to this family of operating systems simply asLinux, as do many large Linux distributions (for example,SUSE Linux andRed Hat Enterprise Linux).
As of May 2011[update], about 8% to 13% of thelines of code of the Linux distribution Ubuntu (version "Natty") is made of GNU components (the range depending on whether GNOME is considered part of GNU); meanwhile, 6% is taken by the Linux kernel, increased to 9% when including its direct dependencies.[189]
^util-linux is the standard set of utilities for use as part of the Linux operating system.[3]
^BusyBox is a userland written with size-optimization and limited resources in mind, used in many embedded Linux distributions. BusyBox replaces mostGNU Core Utilities.[4] One notable Desktop distribution using BusyBox isAlpine Linux.[5]
^GNU is a userland used in various Linux distributions.[6][7][8] The GNU userland contains system daemons, user applications, the GUI, and various libraries.GNU Core Utilities are an essential part of most distributions. Most Linux distributions use theX Window system.[9] Other components of the userland, such as thewidget toolkit, vary with the specific distribution, desktop environment, and user configuration.[10]
^Plan 9 from User Space (aka plan9port) is a port of many Plan 9 libraries and programs from their native Plan 9 environment to Unix-like operating systems, including Linux and FreeBSD.[11][12]
^Toybox is a userland that combines over 200 Unix command line utilities together into a single BSD-licensed executable. After a talk at the 2013 Embedded Linux Conference, Google merged toybox into AOSP and began shipping toybox in Android Marshmallow in 2015.[13]
^Eckert, Jason W. (2012).Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification (Third ed.). Boston, Massachusetts: Cengage Learning. p. 33.ISBN978-1111541538.Archived from the original on May 9, 2013. RetrievedApril 14, 2013.The shared commonality of the kernel is what defines a system's membership in the Linux family; the differingOSS applications that can interact with the common kernel are what differentiate Linux distributions.
^Barry Levine (August 26, 2013)."Linux' 22th [sic] Birthday Is Commemorated – Subtly – by Creator". Simpler Media Group, Inc.Archived from the original on May 18, 2015. RetrievedMay 10, 2015.Originally developed for Intel x86-based PCs, Torvalds' "hobby" has now been released for more hardware platforms than any other OS in history.
^"Linux on Mars!".IT PRO. August 18, 2021.Archived from the original on May 19, 2022. RetrievedJune 30, 2022.
^Ritchie, D.M. (October 1984), "The UNIX System: The Evolution of the UNIX Time-sharing System",AT&T Bell Laboratories Technical Journal,63 (8): 1577,doi:10.1002/j.1538-7305.1984.tb00054.x,S2CID571269,However, UNIX was born in 1969 ...
^Eric, S. Raymond (October 1999).The Cathedral and the Bazaar. Sebastopol, California: O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. p. 12.ISBN0-596-00108-8.Archived from the original on July 18, 2022. RetrievedJuly 21, 2022.In 1982, a group of Unix hackers from Stanford and Berkeley founded Sun Microsystems on the belief that Unix running on relatively inexpensive 68000-based hardware would prove a winning combination for a wide variety of applications. They were right, and their vision set the pattern for an entire industry. While still priced out of reach of most individuals, workstations were cheap for corporations and universities; networks of them (one to a user) rapidly replaced the older VAXes and other time-sharing systems
^Torvalds, Linus (January 5, 1992)."Release notes for Linux v0.12". Linux Kernel Archives. Archived fromthe original on August 19, 2007. RetrievedJuly 23, 2007.The Linux copyright will change: I've had a couple of requests to make it compatible with the GNU copyleft, removing the "you may not distribute it for money" condition. I agree. I propose that the copyright be changed so that it confirms to GNU ─ pending approval of the persons who have helped write code. I assume this is going to be no problem for anybody: If you have grievances ("I wrote that code assuming the copyright would stay the same") mail me. Otherwise, The GNU copyleft takes effect since the first of February. If you do not know the gist of the GNU copyright ─ read it.
^Email correspondence on the Linux Kernel development mailing listLinus Torvalds (November 30, 2001)."Re: Coding style, a non-issue".kernel.org.Archived from the original on August 12, 2021. RetrievedAugust 10, 2020.
^Raymond, Eric S. (2001). O'Reilly, Tim (ed.).The Cathedral and the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary (Second ed.). O'Reilly & Associates. p. 16.ISBN0-596-00108-8.
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^Andrew D. Balsa; et al. (October 17, 2009)."The linux-kernel mailing list FAQ".vger.kernel.org.Archived from the original on October 1, 2012. RetrievedJune 13, 2013....we have tried to use the word "Linux" or the expression "Linux kernel" to designate the kernel, and GNU/Linux to designate the entire body of GNU/GPL'ed OS software,... ...many people forget that the linux kernel mailing list is a forum for discussion of kernel-related matters, not GNU/Linux in general...
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