Linux is an operating system that was initially created as a
hobby by a young student, Linus Torvalds, at the University of Helsinki in Finland. Linus had an interest in
Minix, a small UNIX system, and decided to develop a system that exceeded
the
Minix standards. He began his work in 1991 when he
released version 0.02 and worked steadily until 1994 when version 1.0 of
the Linux Kernel was released. The current
full-featured version is 2.4.20 released 28-Nov-2002, and development
continues (version 2.5.62 released 17-Feb-2003).
Linux is developed under the GNU General Public
License and its source code is freely available to everyone. This however,
doesn't mean that Linux and it's assorted
distributions are free -- companies and developers may charge money for it
as long
as the source code remains available. Linux may be
used for a wide variety of purposes including networking, software
development, and as an end-user platform. Linux is
often considered an excellent, low-cost alternative to other more
expensive
operating systems.
Due to the very nature of Linux's functionality
and
availability, it has become quite popular worldwide and a vast number of
software programmers have taken Linux's source code
and adapted it to meet their individual needs. At this time, there are
dozens of ongoing projects for porting Linux to
various hardware configurations and purposes.
Linux has an official mascot, the Linux Penguin,
which was selected by Linus Torvalds to represent the image he associates
with the operating system he created.
Although many variations of the word Linux
exist,
it is most often pronounced with a short " i " and with the first syllable
stressed, as in LIH-nucks.
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