The Linux Help and Tutorial Thread

[PoppaGeek]

What is Linux.

Linux is a kernel. It is the operating system at it's core.

Utilities such as ls -la, rm -r or cd are mostly tools from the GNU project. The GNU project also has their own kernel but their open source utilities are always packaged with Linux kernels and distros.

Programs like Gedit and Midnight Commander are written by contributors to open source.

The engine for the graphical desktops is the X Windowing System from the X.org open source project.

Desktops such as Cinnamon, Unity, Gnome and KDE are graphical User Interfaces that run on X.

Distributions such as Debian, Slackware and Red Hat bundle the Linux kernel, GNU utilities and open source programs, adding their own installers, packagers and sometimes setup the distro towards a particular goal. Such as ease of install, ease of use for beginners, for corporate/enterprise users or as servers for web, database or firewalls. There are several for system recovery live CDs that do not require installation and several that do minimal installs for systems with limited resources, such as slow CPUs or low memory.

Some distributions like Ubuntu and Mint and Fedora will use the packaging system and the repositories of other distributions such as Debian or Red Hat to further refine the way the distro installs or is setup. Usually what desktops are bundled is a major difference among distros.

The point here is everything is built on top of something else. Start with a Linux kernel add utilities and programs for installation, setup and management. Add X so you can add and run Gnome or Cinnamon desktop.

To run a command line only, no GUI or desktop is actually just running Linux without the many additions that are made to have a desktop.