LINUX

The GNU Project was announced on September 27, 1983, by Richard Stallman, its focus was to make the software and the source code freely available to all. It initiated GNU operating system development in January, 1984. GNU people started writing some open source software tools (like bash) as a replacement for proprietary UNIX tools. They registered these tools under GPL (General Public License) which enforces the following open source principles: Freedom to execute the program Freedom to distribute the program Freedom to modify the source code Freedom to use the code in other programs History of Linux Linux is a Unix like operating system. The Linux Kernel (core part of an operating system) was developed by Linus Torvalds in 1991. A kernel alone does not make an operating system, but Richard Stallman's GNU tools were ready to be incorporated with a kernel to make a fully functional Operating System. Linus Torvalds' matching of GNU tools with the Linux kernel formed the Linux operating system. Now a days Linux is a very powerful operating system used in wrist watches to super computers. Some examples where Linux is used are: 1) Android for mobile phones and netbooks 2) One Laptop Per Child XO2 3) Laptops, Desktops and on Servers Note: Kernel is a fundamental part of Operating system. It acts as a bridge between applications and the actual data processing done at the hardware level. It manages the system's resources. Different Linux Flavors As Linux kernel and supporting packages are free or open source tools, many organisations have created different kind of Linux Operating Systems widely known as Linux Distributions (Distros) or Flavors. There are over 600 Linux Flavors out of which around 300 are actively maintained. Some very popular Linux Ditsros are: 1) Redhat Enterprise Linux 2) Fedora 3) CentOS 4) Ubuntu To know more about Linux Distros visit http://www.distrowatch.com - See more at: http://www.switchroot.com/linux-history-and-different-flavors#sthash.jwBmURuI.dpuf