The Linux kernel supports the insertion and removal at runtime of loadable kernel modules. View all Courses. All rights reserved. Courses Pricing. What is Linux kernel? Open-source The Linux kernel was created by Linus Torvalds and is currently an open-source project with thousands of developers actively working on it. Monolithic The Linux kernel is monolithic, meaning the kernel handles all hardware and driver operations.
Modular The Linux kernel supports the insertion and removal at runtime of loadable kernel modules. Keep Exploring. Related Courses. Linux is a freely distributable version of Unix, originally developed by Linus Torvalds, who began work on Linux in as a student at the University of Helsinki in Finland. Linus now works for Transmeta Corporation, a start-up in Santa Clara, California, and continues to maintain the Linux kernel , that is, the lowest-level core component of the operating system.
Linus released the initial version of Linux for free on the Internet, inadvertently spawning one of the largest software-development phenomena of all time. Today, Linux is authored and maintained by a group of several thousand if not more developers loosely collaborating across the Internet. Companies have sprung up to provide Linux support, to package it into easy-to-install distributions, and to sell workstations pre-installed with the Linux software. In March , the first Linux World Expo trade show was held in San Jose, California, with reportedly well over 12, people in attendance.
Most estimates place the number of Linux users worldwide somewhere around the 10 million mark and we expect this number will look small by the time you read this. The first discussions about Linux were on the Usenet newsgroup comp. These discussions were concerned mostly with the development of a small, academic Unix system for Minix users who wanted more.
The very early development of Linux dealt mostly with the task-switching features of the protected-mode interface, all written in assembly code. Linus writes:. After that it was plain sailing: hairy coding still, but I had some devices, and debugging was easier. I started using C at this stage, and it certainly speeds up development. Two months for basic setup, but then only slightly longer until I had a disk driver seriously buggy, but it happened to work on my machine and a small filesystem.
That was about when I made 0. No announcement was ever made for Linux Version 0. These commercial Linux distributions are backed by corporations and you can buy support from them. There are non-commercial Linux distributions. These are maintained by a community of volunteers. You have Linux distributions that are designed for server use, others that are designed for desktop use, some that are focus on research and science.
There are others that are focused on multimedia production. There are literally hundreds of Linux distributions. Here are some popular Linux distributions:. Again, there are a hundred of Linux distros. These are just a few of the most popular Linux distributions. Linux runs on many hardware platforms from dedicated networking devices to phones to personal computers and even super computers.
Proprietary UNIX operating systems typically only run on their hardware from their company. Linux was developed on PC hardware using Intel processors.
Over time, Linux has been ported to more hardware platforms than any other operating system. The small footprint of Linux allows it to run on older hardware or on embedded systems.
Also, Linux is known for being stable, reliable and secure. This makes it a great source for servers that need to continuously run without downtime. Linux has traditionally been used for server applications. Linux can be used to host websites, act as file servers and even run database software. Many people find Linux to be a good everyday operating system that they use on their personal desktops.
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