Introduction

This article is an introduction to GNU/Linux, which is a Unix-like open source kernel developed by Linus Torvalds on 5th October 1991. It was distributed under the GNU General Public License, so therefore can be used, modified and distributed - commerically or non-commercially by anyone under the licence. Therefore a lot of the community has contributed to the GNU/Linux kernel by adding support for new hardware but also maintaining older hardware. GNU/Linux was originally developed as a free operating system for personal computers based on the Intel x86 architecture, but has more recently been ported to more computer hardware platforms.

Also GNU/Linux is usually packaged in a form of a distribution for desktop and server use. They usually include the GNU/Linux kernel, supporting utilities and libraries and a some applications to fulfill the GNU/Linux distributions liking. Also in any GNU/Linux distribution, individuals have a choice of desktop environments and window managers; so they can change to what they want.

Recommended GNU/Linux Distributions

• Debian (easy to use & stable)
• Ubuntu (easy to use & stable)
• Linux Mint (easy to use & stable)
• Manjaro Linux
• Arch Linux
• Gentoo
• Void Linux

Links

• The Linux Kernel Archives - Link
• Map Of Linux Operating System Internals - Link
• A list Of Linux Distributions - Link
• Linux Distro Community - Link
• Nixheads - Link

Contact

If you need any advice or comments about this article, please email me at info@matthew-allan.co.uk. Thanks.