About Linux OS Systems

Linux Overview

Linux is an operating system that initially was a hobby by, Linus Torvalds as a young student in Finland. Linus had an interest in a small UNIX type system known as Minix, and decided to develop a system that exceeded the Minix standards in functionality. Linus released version 0.02 around the year 1991 and worked steadily until 1994 when version 1.0 of the Linux Kernel was released. At the heart of all Linux systems you find the the Kernel.

The Kernel is developed and released under the GNU General Public License and its source code is freely available to everyone. To work upon or develop. It is this kernel that forms the base around which a Linux operating system is developed. Due to this open book policy there are now literally hundreds of companies and organizations and individuals that have released their own versions of OS Systems based on the source codes around the Linux kernel.

Due to the ongoing nature of the Kernel and vast community behind various distro releases. Linux's functionality, adaptability and robustness, has made it the main Operating system alternative for proprietary systems.

Companies like IBM, Hewlett-Packard have embraced Linux and support its ongoing development. Linux has been adopted worldwide primarily as a server platform. Its use as a home and office desktop operating system is also on the rise. Linux can be incorporated directly into microchips in a process called "embedding" and is increasingly being used this way in appliances and devices.

Throughout the early growth stages of the Kernel Linux was always regarded and dismissed as a computer hobbyist project, unsuitable for the general public's computing needs.

Through the efforts of developers of desktop management systems such as KDE and GNOME, office suite project OpenOffice.org and the Mozilla web browser project, to name only a few, there are now a wide range of applications that run on Linux and it can be used by anyone regardless of his/her knowledge of computers. Linux information and technical support is available from a wide variety of locations. Web sites such as http://www.linux.org/docs/ is a good area to gain knowledge and understanding of the potential that the Linux OS is capable of.

The Linux Documentation project
http://www.tldp.org/
TLDP is short for The Linux Documentation Project, an organization of volunteers authoring, reviewing and managing documents about the Linux operating system. Documents basically come in two formats based upon their length. The shorter ones generally are called HOWTOs (or mini-HOWTOs, if they are really short), the longer documents, called guides, deal in-depth with a Linux feature. The number of topics discussed in these HOWTOs and guides is practically unlimited, ranging from installing the Linux system to managing all kinds of devices, services and environments, to creating your own system from scratch: there's something about it in TLDP, mainly thanks to volunteers who share their experiences. Nevertheless, it must be admitted that there are still some important topics missing from the collection. All the documentation is freely available in several formats suitable for printing and on-line browsing. The main submission language is English, but several translation efforts, including French, German, Italian, Korean and Chinese, try to make this immense amount of information available to a wider public.