What is linux
Linux is a true 32-bit operating system that runs on a variety ofdifferent platforms, including Intel, Sparc, Alpha, and Power-PC (on someof these platforms, such as Alpha, Linux is actually 64-bit). There areother ports available as well, but I do not have any experience withthem.
Linux was first developed back in the early 1990s, by a youngFinnish then-university student named Linus Torvalds. Linus had a"state-of-the-art" 386 box at home and decided to write analternative to the 286-based Minix system (a small unix-likeimplementation primarily used in operating systems classes), to takeadvantage of the extra instruction set available on the then-new chip, andbegan to write a small bare-bones kernel.
Eventually he announced his little project in the USENET groupcomp.os.minix, asking forinterested parties to take a look and perhaps contribute to the project. The results have been phenomenal!
The interesting thing about Linux is, it is completely free! Linusdecided to adopt the GNU Copyleft license of the Free SoftwareFoundation, which means that the code is protected by a copyright --but protected in that it must always be available to others.
Free means free -- you can get it for free, useit for free, and you are even free to sell it for a profit (this isn't asstrange as it sounds; several organizations, including Red Hat, havepackaged up the standard Linux kernel, a collection of GNU utilities, andput their own "flavour" of included applications, and sellthem as distributions. Some common and popular distributions areSlackware, Red Hat, SuSe, and Debian)! The great thing is, you haveaccess to source code which means you can customize the operating systemsto your own needs, not those of the "targetmarket" of most commercial vendors.
Linux can and should be considered a full-blown implementation of unix. However, it can not be called "Unix"; not because ofincompatibilities or lack of functionality, but because the word"Unix" is a registered trademark owned by AT&T, and theuse of the word is only allowable by license agreement.
Linux is every bit as supported, as reliable, and as viable as anyother operating system solution (well, in my opinion, quite a bitmore so!). However, due to its origin, the philosophy behind it, and thelack of a multi-million dollar marketing campaign promoting it, there arelot of myths about it. People have a lot to learn about this wonderfulOS!
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