What is Linux

Advanton Explains what is Linux

Linux is a free and open-source operating system built around the linux kernel. Originally, developed as a kernel by Linus Torvalds in the year 1991 at the University of Helsinki, Finland as a personal project, Linux became the world’s largest open-source software project being managed by a community of developers dedicated to improving the Linux Kernel.

History of Linux

Linux is primarily written in C language and Assembly language for personal computers based on   the Intel x86 architecture, but has since been ported to more platforms than any other operating system.

You will be surprised to know that Linux has become the most installed general-purpose operating system software in the world.

Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux Kernel, first developed it is as a personal project but later decided to share the source code with the community of developers across the world that can contribute to the improvements of the Linux Kernel.

Uses of Linux

Linux has become a part of our lives whether we know it or not. Android smart phones use linux kernel, websites that you access everyday on your computer are running on linux server and infact 70% of the servers in the world today run on linux.

High speed computing and mission critical systems such as stock market applications, weather forecasting systems and high speed data processing applications running global trading platforms run on linux servers.

Personal gadgets such as video recorders, cameras, storage devices and wearable devices run on linux.

Who Owns Linux?

Linux is open source and therefore its source code is available to everyone on the planet. However, the trademark on the name “Linux” rests with its creator, Linus Torvalds.

The source code for Linux is under copyright by its many individual contributors, and licensed under the GPLv2 license.

Because Linux has been a community project therefore, it has a large number of contributors that kept growing over so many years, contacting each individual contributor and getting them to agree to a new license terms & conditions is virtually impossible and so, Linux is distributed under the GPLv2 license to the users and companies.

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