Portal:Linux
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The Linux Portal
Linux (/ˈlɪnʊks/ LIN-uuks) is a family of free and open-source software Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, which was first released on 17 September 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Some members of the family are typically packaged as a distribution (a.k.a. distro), which includes the kernel alongside supporting system software and libraries developed by third parties—such as GNU, Red Hat, and X.Org—to create a complete operating system; however, not all Linux-based operating systems are considered distros, with Android being an example. Linux was originally designed as a clone of Unix and is distributed under the copyleft GPL license.
Linux is one of the most prominent examples of free and open-source softwareopen-source software collaboration. The Linux kernel is considered by many to be the largest free and open source project. While originally developed for x86-based personal computers, it has since been ported to more platforms than any other operating system, When combined with Android, which uses a Linux-based kernel and is designed for smartphones, they have the largest installed base of all general-purpose operating systems. (Full article...)
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Kali Linux is a Linux distribution designed for digital forensics and penetration testing. It is maintained and funded by Offensive Security. The software is based on the testing branch of the Debian Linux Distribution: most packages Kali uses are imported from the Debian repositories. Kali Linux has gained popularity in the cybersecurity community due to its comprehensive set of tools designed for penetration testing, vulnerability analysis, and reverse engineering.
It was developed by Mati Aharoni and Devon Kearns of Offensive Security through the rewrite of BackTrack, their previous information security testing Linux distribution based on Knoppix. (Full article...) -
The Fedora Project is an independent project under a legal responsibility of Red Hat to coordinate the development of Fedora Linux, a Linux-based operating system, operating with the mission of creating "an innovative platform for hardware, clouds, and containers that enables software developers and community members to build tailored solutions for their users".
The project also oversees Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux, a special interest group which maintains the eponymous packages. The project was founded in 2003 as a result of a merger between the Red Hat Linux (RHL) and Fedora Linux projects. It is sponsored by Red Hat primarily, but its employees make up only 35% of project contributors, and most of the over 2,000 contributors are unaffiliated members of the community. (Full article...) -
Arch Linux (/ɑːrtʃ/) is an open source, rolling release Linux distribution. Arch Linux is kept up-to-date by regularly updating the individual pieces of software that it comprises. It provides monthly "snapshots" which are used as installation media. Arch Linux is intentionally minimal, and is meant to be configured by the user during installation to add only what is needed.
Pacman, a package manager written specifically for Arch Linux, is used to install, remove and update software packages. The Arch User Repository (AUR) serves as a community-driven software repository for Arch Linux and provides packages not included in the official repositories and alternative versions of packages. AUR packages can be downloaded and built manually, or installed through an AUR 'helper'. (Full article...) -
Ubuntu (/ʊˈbʊntuː/ ⓘ uu-BUUN-too) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed primarily of free and open-source software. Developed by the British company Canonical and a community of contributors under a meritocratic governance model, Ubuntu is released in multiple official editions: Desktop, Server, and Core for IoT and robotic devices.
Ubuntu is published on a six-month release cycle, with long-term support (LTS) versions issued every two years. Canonical provides security updates and support until each release reaches its designated end-of-life (EOL), with optional extended support available through the Ubuntu Pro and Expanded Security Maintenance (ESM) services. (Full article...) -
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS Resolute Raccoon
Releases of Ubuntu—a Linux operating system mostly composed of free and open-source software—are made semiannually by Canonical Ltd using the year and month of the release as a version number. The first Ubuntu release, for example, was Ubuntu 4.10 and was released on 20 October 2004. Consequently, version numbers for future versions are provisional; if the release is delayed until a different month (or even year) than planned, the version number will change accordingly.
Releases are scheduled every April and October to incorporate new GNOME releases made every March and September. Free support is offered and includes security updates for "main" free software packaged. Every fourth release, scheduled for April of every even-numbered year, is designated as a long-term support (LTS) release, meaning it receives free support for five years. Non-LTS releases are designed as interim releases and receive free support for nine months. The Expanded Security Maintenance (ESM) service from the Ubuntu Pro subscription, which is free for personal use on up to five devices, extends long-term support to be ten-years long and include security updates for community-managed "universe" free software packages. The Legacy subscription add-on extends long-term support to fifteen years. (Full article...) -
Linux began in 1991 as a personal project by Finnish student Linus Torvalds to create a new free operating system kernel. The resulting Linux kernel has been marked by constant growth throughout its history. Since the initial release of its source code in 1991, it has grown from a small number of C files under a license prohibiting commercial distribution to the 4.15 version in 2018 with more than 23.3 million lines of source code, not counting comments, under the GNU General Public License v2 with a syscall exception meaning anything that uses the kernel via system calls are not subject to the GNU GPL. (Full article...)
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Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux) is a Linux kernel security module that provides a mechanism for supporting access control security policies, including mandatory access controls (MAC).
SELinux is a set of kernel modifications and user-space tools that have been added to various Linux distributions. Its architecture strives to separate enforcement of security decisions from the security policy, and streamlines the amount of software involved with security policy enforcement. The key concepts underlying SELinux can be traced to several earlier projects by the United States National Security Agency (NSA). (Full article...) -
Mandriva Linux, a fusion of the French distribution Mandrake Linux and the Brazilian distribution Conectiva Linux, is a discontinued Linux distribution developed by Mandriva S.A.
Each release's lifetime was 18 months for base updates (Linux, system software, etc.) and 12 months for desktop updates (window managers, desktop environments, web browsers, etc.). Server products received full updates for at least five years after their release. (Full article...) -
Rocky Linux is a free and open source Linux distribution developed by Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation, which is a privately owned benefit corporation that describes itself as a "self-imposed not-for-profit". It is intended to be a downstream, complete binary-compatible release using the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) operating system source code. The project's aim is to provide a community-supported, production-grade enterprise operating system. Rocky Linux, along with RHEL, has become popular for enterprise operating system use.
The first release candidate version of Rocky Linux was released on April 30, 2021, and its first general availability version was released on June 21, 2021. Rocky Linux 8 will be supported through May 2029, Rocky Linux 9 through May 2032, and Rocky Linux 10 through May 2035. (Full article...) -
The first-generation Nexus 7 tablet running Android, an operating system using the Linux kernel. While Linux-based operating systems are in common use in tablet computers, they are less frequently adopted as desktop computers.
The criticism of Linux focuses on issues concerning use of operating systems which use the Linux kernel.
While the Linux-based Android operating system dominates the smartphone market in many countries and accounts for more than 72% of mobile device usage globally (as of 2024-2025), and while Linux is used on the New York Stock Exchange, on most supercomputers, is used to host 96.3 percent of the top 1 million web servers, and even is used on more virtual machines on Microsoft's own Azure cloud service than Microsoft Windows, it is used in few desktop and laptop computers. Much of the criticism of Linux is related to the lack of desktop and laptop adoption, although as of 2015[update] there has been some controversy with the project's perspective on security and the adoption of systemd by leading Linux distributions (Full article...) -
Android is an operating system developed by Google, designed primarily for smartphones and tablets (touchscreen-based mobile devices originally, later for other devices, such as TVs and PCs), based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other free and open-source software. First released in 2008, Android is the world's most widely used operating system with 3.9 billion users; and most used operating system for smartphones. The latest version, released on June 16, 2026, is Android 17.
At its core, the operating system is known as the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), was originally only made for a smartphone, and is free and open-source software (FOSS) primarily licensed under the Apache License. However, most devices run the proprietary Android open-core version developed by Google, which ships with additional proprietary closed-source software pre-installed, most notably Google Mobile Services (GMS), which includes core apps such as Google Chrome, the digital distribution platform Google Play, and the associated Google Play Services development platform. Other Google services including Firebase Cloud Messaging, used for push notifications, are recommended for applications. While AOSP is free, the "Android" name and logo are trademarks of Google, who restrict the use of Android branding on "uncertified" products. The majority of smartphones and other devices based on AOSP run Google's ecosystem—which is known simply as Android—some with vendor-customized user interfaces and software suites, for example One UI. Numerous modified distributions exist, which include competing Amazon Fire OS, community-developed LineageOS; the source code has also been used to develop a variety of Android distributions on a range of other devices, such as Android TV for televisions, Wear OS for wearables, Android Automotive for in-car systems, Android XR for virtual reality headsets, and Android for PCs. Commercial products like micro consoles have also used Android. (Full article...) -
Gentoo Linux (pronounced /ˈdʒɛntuː/ JEN-too) is a Linux distribution built using the Portage package management system. Unlike a binary software distribution, the source code is compiled locally according to the user's preferences and is often optimized for the specific type of computer. Precompiled binaries are available for some packages, but only for systems using Glibc; no precompiled binaries are available for Musl-based systems. Gentoo runs on a wide variety of processor architectures.
Gentoo package management is designed to be modular, portable, easy to maintain, and flexible. Gentoo describes itself as a meta-distribution because of its adaptability, in that the majority of its users have configurations and sets of installed programs which are unique to the system and the applications they use. (Full article...) -
openSUSE ( /ˌoʊpənˈsuːzə/) is a free and open-source Linux distribution developed by the openSUSE Project. It is offered in two main variations: Tumbleweed, an upstream rolling release distribution, and Leap, a stable release distribution which is sourced from SUSE Linux Enterprise.
The openSUSE project is sponsored by SUSE of Germany. The company released the first version as SUSE Linux in 1994. Its development was opened up to the community in 2005, which marked the creation of openSUSE. The focus of the developers is on creating a stable and user-friendly RPM-based operating system with a large target group for workstations and servers. (Full article...) -
Linux on IBM Z, Linux on zSystems, or zLinux is the collective term for the Linux operating system compiled to run on IBM mainframes, especially IBM Z, zSystems, and LinuxONE servers. Similar terms which imply the same meaning are Linux/390, Linux/390x, etc. The three Linux distributions certified for usage on the IBM Z hardware platform are Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, and Ubuntu. (Full article...)
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Linux malware includes viruses, Trojans, worms and other types of malware that affect the Linux family of operating systems. Linux, Unix and other Unix-like computer operating systems are generally regarded as very well-protected against, but not immune to, computer viruses. (Full article...)
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Release news
- 2026-06-29 Mageia 10 released.
- 2026-06-16 KDE Plasma 6.7 released.
- 2026-06-14 Linux kernel 7.1 released.
- 2026-04-28 Fedora Linux 44 released.
- 2026-04-23 Ubuntu 26.04 LTS "Resolute Raccoon" released.
- 2026-04-12 Linux kernel 7.0 released.
- 2026-03-18 GNOME 50 released. (announcement)
- 2026-02-08 Linux kernel 6.19 released.
- 2025-11-30 Linux kernel 6.18 released.
- 2025-10-28 Fedora Linux 43 released.
- 2025-10-09 Ubuntu 25.10 "Questing Quokka" released.
- 2025-10-01 openSUSE Leap 16 released.
- 2025-09-28 Linux kernel 6.17 released.
- 2025-09-17 GNOME 49 released. (announcement)
- 2025-08-09 Debian 13 "Trixie" released.
- 2025-07-27 Linux kernel 6.16 released.
- 2025-05-25 Linux kernel 6.15 released.
- 2025-05-13 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 released.
- 2025-04-17 Ubuntu 25.04 "Plucky Puffin" released.
- 2025-04-15 Fedora Linux 42 released.
- 2025-03-24 Linux kernel 6.14 released.
- 2025-03-19 GNOME 48 released. (announcement)
- 2025-02-11 KDE Plasma 6.3 released.
- 2025-01-19 Linux kernel 6.13 released.
- 2024-11-17 Linux kernel 6.12 released.
- 2024-10-29 Fedora Linux 41 released.
- 2024-10-10 Ubuntu 24.10 "Oracular Oriole" released.
- 2024-09-18 GNOME 47 released. (announcement)
- 2024-09-15 Linux kernel 6.11 released.
- 2024-07-14 Linux kernel 6.10 released.
- 2024-05-12 Linux kernel 6.9 released.
- 2024-04-25 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS "Noble Numbat" released.
- 2024-04-23 Fedora Linux 40 released.
- 2024-03-20 GNOME 46 released. (announcement)
- 2024-03-10 Linux kernel 6.8 released.
- 2024-02-28 KDE Plasma 6 released.
- 2024-01-07 Linux kernel 6.7 released.
- 2023-11-20 Rocky Linux 9.3 released
- 2023-11-07 Fedora Linux 39 released.
- 2023-10-30 Linux kernel 6.6 released.
- 2023-10-12 Ubuntu 23.10 "Mantic Minotaur" released.
- 2023-09-20 GNOME 45 released.
- 2023-08-27 Linux kernel 6.5 released.
- 2023-06-26 Linux kernel 6.4 released.
- 2023-06-10 Debian 12 "bookworm" released.
- 2023-05-16 Rocky Linux 9.2 released.
- 2023-05-10 AlmaLinux 9.2 "Turquoise Kodkod" released.
- 2023-04-23 Linux kernel 6.3 released.
- 2023-04-20 Ubuntu 23.04 "Lunar Lobster" released.
- 2023-03-22 GNOME 44 released.
- 2023-02-19 Linux kernel 6.2 released.
- 2022-12-11 Linux kernel 6.1 released.
- 2022-11-16 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.1 and AlmaLinux 9.1 released.
- 2022-11-15 Fedora Linux 37 released.
- 2022-10-20 Ubuntu 22.10 "Kinetic Kudu" released.
- 2022-10-02 Linux kernel 6.0 released.
- 2022-09-21 GNOME 43 released-
- 2022-07-31 Linux kernel 5.19 released.
- 2022-05-26 AlmaLinux 9 released.
- 2022-05-22 Linux kernel 5.18 released.
- 2022-05-18 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 released.
- 2022-05-10 Fedora Linux 36 released.
- 2022-04-21 Ubuntu 22.04 LTS "Jammy Jellyfish" released.
- 2022-03-23 GNOME 42 released.
- 2022-03-20 Linux kernel 5.17 released.
- 2022-02-02 Slackware 15.0 released.
- 2022-01-09 Linux kernel 5.16 released.
- 2021-11-02 Fedora Linux 35 released.
Selected image
Cgroups are an integral part of the Linux kernel. Container could be based on them.
Related portals
Selected biographies -
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Jane Silber is a board member of Canonical Ltd. and was its chief executive officer from 2010 to 2017.
Silber is also the chair of the board of Diffblue (whose products include Cover, an AI-driven unit test-writing tool).
Silber joined Canonical in July 2004, where her work has included leading the Ubuntu One project and ensuring that large organizations find Ubuntu "enterprise-ready".
She partially attributes the increasing attention to user research and design in open source since 2009 to Canonical's leadership in this area.
Silber announced her transition out of the CEO role in April 2017, with Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth resuming the position from July 2017. (Full article...) -
Harald Welte, also known as LaForge, is a German programmer.
Welte is the founder of the free software project Osmocom and was formerly involved in the netfilter/iptables and Openmoko projects. He is a member of the Chaos Computer Club. (Full article...) -
Patrick Volkerding (born October 20, 1966) is the founder and maintainer of the Slackware Linux distribution. Volkerding is Slackware's "Benevolent Dictator for Life" (BDFL), and is also known informally as "The Man". (Full article...) -
Stephen C. Tweedie is a Scottish software developer who is known for his work on the Linux kernel, in particular his work on filesystems.
After becoming involved with the development of the ext2 filesystem working on performance issues, he led the development of the ext3 filesystem which involved adding a journaling layer (JBD) to the ext2 filesystem. For his work on the journaling layer, he has been described by fellow Linux developer Andrew Morton as "a true artisan". (Full article...) -
Hans Peter Anvin (born 12 January 1972), also known as hpa, is a Swedish-American computer programmer who has contributed to free and open-source software projects. Anvin is the originator of SYSLINUX, Linux Assigned Names and Numbers Authority (LANANA), and various Linux kernel features. (Full article...) -
Con Kolivas is a Greek-Australian anaesthetist. He has worked as a computer programmer on the Linux kernel and on the development of the cryptographic currency mining software CGMiner. His Linux contributions include patches for the kernel to improve its desktop performance, particularly reducing I/O impact. (Full article...)
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Andries Evert Brouwer (born 1951) is a Dutch mathematician and computer programmer, Professor Emeritus at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). He is known as the creator of the greatly expanded 1984 to 1985 versions of the roguelike computer game Hack that formed the basis for NetHack. He is also a Linux kernel hacker. He is sometimes referred to by the handle aeb. (Full article...)
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Sage Weil (born March 17, 1978) is the founder and chief architect of Ceph, a distributed storage platform. He also was the creator of WebRing, a co-founder of Los Angeles–based hosting company DreamHost, and the founder and CTO of Inktank. Weil additionally worked for Red Hat as the chief architect of the Ceph project. Weil is currently the CEO of Civic Media, a group owner of radio stations in the Midwest.
Weil earned a Bachelor of Science in computer science from Harvey Mudd College in 2000 and completed his PhD in 2007 at the University of California, Santa Cruz working with Prof. Scott Brandt on consistency protocols, data distribution (CRUSH), and the metadata manager in the Ceph distributed file system. In 2014, he won an O'Reilly Open Source Award. (Full article...) -
Theodore Yue Tak Ts'o (Chinese: 曹子德; born 1968) is an American software engineer mainly known for his contributions to the Linux kernel, in particular his contributions to file systems. He is the secondary developer and maintainer of e2fsprogs, the userspace utilities for the ext2, ext3, and ext4 filesystems, and is a maintainer for the ext4 file system. (Full article...) -
Bruce Perens (born around 1958) is an American computer programmer and advocate in the free software movement. He created The Open Source Definition and published the first formal announcement and manifesto of open source. He co-founded the Open Source Initiative (OSI) with Eric S. Raymond.
In 2005, Perens represented Open Source at the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society, at the invitation of the United Nations Development Programme. He has appeared before national legislatures and is often quoted in the press, advocating for open source and the reform of national and international technology policy. (Full article...) -
Bradley M. Kühn (born 1973; previously spelled Kuhn) is a free software activist from the United States.
Kühn is currently Policy Fellow and Hacker-in-Residence of the Software Freedom Conservancy, having previously been executive director. Until 2010 he was the FLOSS Community Liaison and Technology Director of the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC). He previously served as the Executive Director of Free Software Foundation (FSF) from 2001 until March 2005. He served on the FSF's board of directors from March 2010 until October 2019. (Full article...) -
Ian Ashley Murdock (April 28, 1973 – December 28, 2015) was an American software engineer, known for being the founder of the Debian project and Progeny Linux Systems, a commercial Linux company. (Full article...) -
Gaël Duval (French pronunciation: [ɡaɛl dyval]; born 1973) is a French entrepreneur. In July 1998, he created Mandrake Linux (which became Mandriva Linux, now discontinued), a Linux distribution originally based on Red Hat Linux and KDE. He was also a co-founder of MandrakeSoft (which merged in Mandriva, now discontinued) with Jacques Le Marois and Frédéric Bastok.
Gaël Duval was responsible for communication in the Mandriva management team until he was laid off by the company in March 2006, in a round of cost-cutting. Duval suspected part of the reason for his dismissal was disagreement with management over the company's future strategy, resulting in a lawsuit against the company. (Full article...) -
Alan Cox (born 22 July 1968) is a British computer programmer who has been a key figure in the development of Linux. He maintained the 2.2 branch of the Linux kernel and was heavily involved in its development, an association that dates back to 1991. He lives in Swansea, Wales, where he lived with his wife Telsa Gwynne, who died in 2015, and now lives with author Tara Neale, whom he married in 2020. He graduated with a BSc in Computer Science from Swansea University in 1991 and received an MBA from the same university in 2005.
Prior to his Linux work, Cox developed some video games for home computers, such as the text adventure Blizzard Pass. (Full article...) -
Rusty Russell is an Australian free software programmer and advocate, known for his work on the Linux kernel's networking subsystem and the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard. (Full article...)
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General images -
The following are images from various Linux-related articles on Wikipedia.
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Logo of Debian GNU/kFreeBSD (from Debian) -
Debian 12 installation menu (UEFI Mode) (from Debian) -
Redevelopment costs of Linux kernel (from Linux kernel) -
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Boot messages of a Linux kernel 2.6.25.17 (from Linux kernel) -
Sankey diagram of Linux Kernel Source Lines of Code (from Linux kernel) -
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Debian 6 (Squeeze), 2011 (from Debian) -
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alt=UbuntuDDE logo (from Ubuntu) -
Package installed with Aptitude (from Debian) -
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Linus Torvalds at the LinuxCon Europe 2014 (from Linux kernel) -
Map of the Linux kernel (from Linux kernel) -
Four interfaces are distinguished: two internal to the kernel, and two between the kernel and userspace. (from Linux kernel) -
The Linux kernel supports various hardware architectures, providing a common platform for software, including proprietary software. (from Linux kernel) -
The official logo (also known as open use logo) that contains the well-known Debian swirl (from Debian) -
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Debian 4 (Etch), 2007 (from Debian) -
Fedora Workstation 41 with its default applications (from Fedora Linux) -
Eucalyptus interface (from Ubuntu) -
The core values of the Fedora community (from Fedora Linux) -
The Linux Storage Stack Diagram (from Linux kernel) -
At XDC2014, Alex Deucher from AMD announced the unified kernel-mode driver. The proprietary Linux graphic driver, libGL-fglrx-glx, will share the same DRM infrastructure with Mesa 3D. As there is no stable in-kernel ABI, AMD had to constantly adapt the former binary blob used by Catalyst. (from Linux kernel) -
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Fedora 21, a version that brought experimental Wayland and HiDPI support (December 2014) (from Fedora Linux) -
Cloud Ubuntu Orange Box -
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Logo of GNU Hurd (from Debian) -
A fresh install of Silverblue 41 (from Fedora Linux) -
A Debian 10 Buster box cover (from Debian) -
alt=Ubuntu Sway logo (from Ubuntu) -
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Screenshot of GDebi Package installer (from Debian) -
Fedora with the KDE Plasma Desktop, one of the several official Fedora Spins. As of Fedora 42, it became an official Fedora edition alongside Fedora Workstation with GNOME. (from Fedora Linux) -
![Image 38Ubuntu family tree[dubious – discuss] (from Ubuntu)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/79/UbuntuFamilyTree1210.svg/120px-UbuntuFamilyTree1210.svg.png)
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Linux kernel panic output (from Linux kernel)
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![Image 38Ubuntu family tree[dubious – discuss] (from Ubuntu)](/location/wiki/File:UbuntuFamilyTree1210.svg)
Did you know?
- ... that researchers submitting to the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy intentionally introduced security bugs into Linux?
- ... that Shuah Khan, the first woman fellow of the Linux Foundation, "signed off" on a patch recommending the use of inclusive terminology in the Linux kernel?
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