Linux is a powerful and flexible platform first released in 1991 and today used across devices from tablets and servers to supercomputers.
At the heart of the ecosystem is the Linux kernel, hosted on kernel.org and maintained by Linus Torvalds together with thousands of contributors worldwide. Various distributions - such as Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora and Arch - are built around the kernel and provide graphics stacks, package managers and user interfaces.
Components like the GNU toolchain, systemd, X11/Wayland and popular shells (bash, zsh) round out a complete operating system. Linux is free and open source under the GPL, letting you inspect, modify and distribute the code. Its large ecosystem, which also includes the Android mobile platform, makes Linux one of the most widespread and versatile software platforms in the world.






























