Hello, and welcome to this first edition of series of videos in which I try to help you learn about Linux. I am your host, Edward. If you hadn’t had a chance to watch my Introduction video, I encourage you to go back to kind of get the idea and intent of why I’m recording these videos and posting on my website.
So, what is Linux? As a whole Linux has been generally labeled an operating system, like Windows and MacOS are operating systems. But really, at the core, it is actually the Linux kernel that runs the operating system. If you were looking to try Linux you would normally look for a Linux distribution, or distro, from the many choices across the Linux communities. The different versions available can be broken down to the type of distro in what I generally like to term an rpm, deb or arch based distribution. As a whole the rpm based distros (specifically taken from the software package manager used in the OS) are a branch of the Red Hat operating system, the deb based (again, the software package manager) are a branch of the Debian operating system, and the arch based are a branch of the Arch operating system.
Some of you reading this may already know that the UNIX operating system was one of the first “mainstream” successful operating systems that began in the late 1960s’. Well it was Linus Torvald that took the power of UNIX and created his own version in the early 1990s’, called it Linux and made it open and free to anyone who wanted to use it.
You may not know this but you are using Linux right now while you browse the internet. Linux, as a whole, actually powers the internet in the servers that host and serve web sites to the world. Linux truly is the most widely used operating system in the world because of that. This includes any social media platform and cloud services you may use on a daily basis. On top of that, if you have an Internet of Things device at home at the core it is probably powered by the Linux kernel. If you are an Android smartphone user, you are already a Linux user.
In all actuality, this post only touches the surface of the definition of Linux. As I go through these sessions in this project each topic will touch the surface more in the understanding of what Linux is.