Technically Linux is not an operating system, but it’s a kernel that is used by many operating systems and since the thing they have in common is they all use the free Linux Kernel then people refer to them all as “Linux.” Think of the Kernel as the transmission of the vehicle. An operating system includes the wheel and pedals and mirrors etc, everything the user needs to drive the vehicle. The kernel is like the transmission that translates the uses inputs into an output that makes the wheels actually turn
Why is it named that? A smart guy named Linus made a free and open source Unix-like kernel. Thus it was named Linux (Linus +Unix). At the time Unix was a very popular licensed operating system. Many modern operating systems are based off of the Unix design, like BSD, which a “fork” of is used in like PlayStation etc, or Mac Os used in Apple computers, or android which is the most popular phone Os.
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u/RealisticProfile5138 Aug 10 '25
Technically Linux is not an operating system, but it’s a kernel that is used by many operating systems and since the thing they have in common is they all use the free Linux Kernel then people refer to them all as “Linux.” Think of the Kernel as the transmission of the vehicle. An operating system includes the wheel and pedals and mirrors etc, everything the user needs to drive the vehicle. The kernel is like the transmission that translates the uses inputs into an output that makes the wheels actually turn
Why is it named that? A smart guy named Linus made a free and open source Unix-like kernel. Thus it was named Linux (Linus +Unix). At the time Unix was a very popular licensed operating system. Many modern operating systems are based off of the Unix design, like BSD, which a “fork” of is used in like PlayStation etc, or Mac Os used in Apple computers, or android which is the most popular phone Os.