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Stupid question, but what makes Linux, linux?
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2023
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Linux
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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"Linux" is the name of the OS kernel — the component that manages hardware drivers, schedules processes, provides basic networking operations, and so on. The project that builds that particular kernel was started in 1991 by Linus Torvalds.
However, that kernel is almost always used with an assortment of libraries, utilities, and user-interfaces (such as the
bashshell) which are often expected to be part of a "Linux system". Many of these come from the GNU project, which began separately from the Linux kernel as an effort to make a free Unix clone.When the libraries etc. are the ones from the GNU project — e.g. the C library
glibc— we can call the system "GNU/Linux" which is a term used by Debian and some other software distributions.