What Is Linux?

What Is Linux?
Linux (pronounced “linnuks”) is a computer operating system, like Microsoft Windows® or the Apple Mac OS (the Linux “desktop” or main screen, in fact, looks much like a combination of the two). Linux is most widely known among corporate computer users because of its quality, reliability, and price. Linux has matured to the point where it is now the preferred platform for most of the world's more robust and critical computer systems. Because of the robust Linux programmer community, there are several “flavors” of Linux (known as “distributions”), each specialized in slightly different way. The logo for Linux is a penguin.

Who Created Linux?
In 1991, Linus Torvalds, a student at the University of Helsinki in Finland, started to write a computer operating system. By releasing early versions of the software under a “public” license, Torvalds provided an environment for many other programmers to work together to improve his software, which became known as Linux. It was this commitment to freely available software code, in combination with similarly free programming tools written by Richard Stallman from MIT, that allowed Linux to rapidly become the main alternative to proprietary operating systems.