Linux and open source

Linux is a free, open source operating system (OS), released under the GNU General Public License (GPL).

Linux has become the largest open source software project in the world.

• The OS started as a free, open source version of the MINIX operating system (derived from Unix), first released by Linus Torvalds in 1991.

• Nearly 16K professional and hobbyist programmers around the world have contributed to the Linux kernel, improving its features and fixing bugs over time.

• The Linux Kernel Archives (kernel.org) is the upstream used by open source Linux distrubtions like Fedora, SUSE, and Ubuntu.

The open source license for Linux prohibits restrictions on the use of the software. Anyone can run, study, modify, and redistribute the source code, or even sell copies of their modified code, as long as they do so under the same license.