Portal:Linux
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 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...)
Selected articles -
Gentoo Linux (pronounced /ˈdʒɛntuː/ JEN-too) is a Linux distribution built using the Portage package management system. Unlike a binary Linux distribution, the source code is compiled locally according to the user's preferences and is often optimized for the specific type of computer. However, precompiled binaries are available for some packages. 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...)- GoboLinux is a Linux distribution whose most prominent feature is a reorganization of the traditional Linux file system. Rather than following the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard like most Unix-like systems, each program in a GoboLinux system has its own subdirectory tree, where all of its files (including settings specific to that program) may be found. Thus, a program "Foo" has all of its specific files and libraries in
/Programs/Foo, under the corresponding version of this program at hand. For example, the commonly known GCC compiler suite version 8.1.0, would reside under the directory/Programs/GCC/8.1.0.
According to the GoboLinux developers, this results in a cleaner system. (Full article...)
Debian (/ˈdɛbiən/) is a free, general-purpose operating system developed by the Debian Project, a worldwide volunteer association founded by Ian Murdock on August 16, 1993. It is the second-oldest Linux distribution still being developed (only Slackware is older) and forms the base of many others.
It is deployed across servers, personal computers, and embedded devices. Among Linux distributions, it ranks second only to Ubuntu (a Debian derivative), with 16% of the overall market. According to the 2025 Stack Overflow Developer Survey, 11.4% of developers use it as their primary personal operating system and 10.4% professionally. Its emphasis on stability and long-term support over frequent package updates has made it prevalent in server and embedded deployments. (Full article...)
Ubuntu 26.10 Stonking Stingray
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 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...)
Knoppix, stylized KNOPPIX (/ˈknɒpɪks/ KNOP-iks), is an operating system based on Debian designed to be run directly from a CD or DVD (Live CD) or a USB flash drive (Live USB). It was first released in 2000 by German Linux consultant Klaus Knopper, and was one of the first popular live distributions. Knoppix is loaded from the removable medium and decompressed into a RAM drive. The decompression is transparent and on-the-fly.
There are two main editions, available in both English and German: the traditional compact-disc (700 megabytes) edition and the DVD (4.7 gigabytes) "Maxi" edition. (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...)
- As of 2015[update], over four hundred Linux distributions are actively developed, with about a dozen distributions being most popular for general-purpose use.
Besides the Linux distributions designed for general-purpose use on desktops and servers, distributions may be specialized for different purposes including computer architecture support, embedded systems, stability, security, localization to a specific region or language, targeting of specific user groups, support for real-time applications, or commitment to a given desktop environment. Furthermore, some distributions deliberately include only free software. (Full article...) - The Linux kernel mailing list (LKML) is the main electronic mailing list for Linux kernel development, where the majority of the announcements, discussion and debates over the kernel take place. Many other mailing lists exist to discuss the different subsystems and ports of the Linux kernel, but LKML is the principal communication channel among Linux kernel developers. It is a very high-volume list, usually receiving about 1,400 messages each day, most of which are kernel code patches.
Linux utilizes a workflow governed by LKML, which is the "bazaar" where kernel development takes place. In his book Linux Kernel Development, Robert Love notes: (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', such as Yet Another Yogurt (yay). (Full article...)
Ubuntu, one of the most popular desktop Linux distributions
A Linux distribution, often abbreviated as distro, is an operating system that includes the Linux kernel for its kernel functions. Although the term does not imply product distribution per se, a distro, if distributed on its own, is often obtained via a website intended specifically for the purpose. Distros have been designed for a wide variety of systems ranging from personal computers (for example, Linux Mint) to servers (for example, Red Hat Enterprise Linux) and from embedded devices (for example, OpenWrt) to supercomputers (for example, Rocks Cluster Distribution).
A distro typically includes a Linux kernel and many other components. Commonly, it includes a package manager, an init system (such as systemd, OpenRC, SysVinit, or runit), GNU tools and libraries, documentation, Internet Protocol (IP) network configuration utility software (utilities), the getty TTY setup program, and many more. Programs used to provide a desktop experience (most commonly the Mesa userspace graphics drivers), a display server (the most common being the X.org Server, or, more recently, a Wayland compositor such as Sway, KDE's KWin, or GNOME's Mutter), a desktop environment (most commonly GNOME, KDE Plasma, Cinnamon or Xfce), a sound server (usually either PulseAudio or more recently PipeWire), and other related programs may be included or installed by the user. (Full article...)- Loki Software, Inc. (Loki Entertainment) was an American video game developer based in Tustin, California, that ported several video games from Microsoft Windows to Linux. It took its name from the Norse deity Loki. Although successful in its goal of bringing games to the Linux platform, the company folded in January 2002 after filing for bankruptcy. (Full article...)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is a commercial Linux distribution developed by Red Hat. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is released in server versions for x86-64, Power ISA, ARM64, and IBM Z and a desktop version for x86-64. Fedora Linux and CentOS Stream serve as its upstream sources. All of Red Hat's official support and training, together with the Red Hat Certification Program, focuses on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux platform.
The first version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux to bear the name originally came onto the market as "Red Hat Linux Advanced Server". In 2003, Red Hat rebranded Red Hat Linux Advanced Server to "Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS" and added two more variants, Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES and Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS. (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...)
Fedora Linux is a Linux distribution developed by the Fedora Project. It was originally developed in 2003 as a continuation of the Red Hat Linux project. It contains software distributed under various free and open-source licenses and aims to be on the leading edge of open-source technologies. It is now the upstream source for CentOS Stream and Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Since the release of Fedora 21 in December 2014, three editions have been made available: personal computer, server and cloud computing. This was expanded to five editions for containerization and Internet of Things (IoT) as of the release of Fedora 37 in November 2022. A new version of Fedora Linux is usually released roughly every six months. (Full article...)
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Release news
- 2026-11-03 Fedora Linux 45 released.
- 2026-10-18 Linux kernel 7.3 released.
- 2026-10-15 Ubuntu 26.10 "Stonking Stingray" released.
- 2026-09-16 GNOME 51 released. (announcement)
- 2026-08-17 Linux kernel 7.2 released.
- 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.
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Fedora Linux 35, the 35th Fedora Linux distribution release.
Related portals
Selected biographies -
- Daniel Robbins is a computer programmer who founded the Gentoo Linux project and was its former chief architect. In 2008, he launched the Funtoo project, a free Linux distribution based on Gentoo, and he became the project's lead developer and organizer. He works in Albuquerque, New Mexico at Zenoss, and as president for Funtoo Technologies. (Full article...)
Bradley M. Kühn (born 1973) 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...)
Michael Kerrisk is a technical author, programmer and, since 2004, maintainer of the Linux man-pages project, succeeding Andries Brouwer. He was born in 1961 in New Zealand and lives in Munich, Germany.
Kerrisk has worked for Digital Equipment, Google, the Linux Foundation and, as an editor and writer, for LWN.net. Currently, he works as a freelance consultant and trainer. (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...)
Chris Wright is a Linux kernel developer and CTO with Red Hat. He was the Linux kernel co-maintainer for the -stable branch with Greg Kroah-Hartman. He is involved in Linux kernel security related topics and is currently the maintainer for the LSM framework.
Wright also serves as the Chair of the OpenDaylight Project Board of Directors. (Full article...)
Andrew Keith Paul Morton (born 1959) is an Australian software engineer. He is one of the lead developers of the Linux kernel, and a co-maintainer of the Ext3 file system, the journaling layer for block devices (JBD) and memory management. (Full article...)
Hans Thomas Reiser (born December 19, 1963) is an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, and convicted murderer. In April 2008, Reiser was convicted of the first-degree murder of his wife, Nina Reiser, who disappeared in September 2006. He subsequently pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree murder, as part of a settlement agreement that included disclosing the location of Nina Reiser's body, which he revealed to be in a shallow grave near the couple's home.
Prior to his incarceration, Reiser created the ReiserFS computer file system, which may be used by the Linux kernel but is now removed, as well as its attempted successor, Reiser4. In 2004, he founded Namesys, a corporation meant to coordinate the development of both file systems. (Full article...)
Mary Gardiner is an Australian Linux programmer who was director of operations at the Ada Initiative, described as a "non-profit organization dedicated to increasing participation of women in open technology and culture". She was a council member of Linux Australia until September 2011. In 2012, Gardiner and Ada Initiative co-founder Valerie Aurora were named two of the most influential people in computer security by SC Magazine. (Full article...)- Robert M. Love (born c. 1981) is an American author, speaker, Google engineer, and open source software developer.
Love is best known for his contributions to the Linux kernel, with notable work including the preemptive kernel, process scheduler, kernel event layer, virtual memory subsystem, and inotify. At Google, he was a member of the Android team and helped launch the first version of the platform. Love is also active in the GNOME community, working on NetworkManager, GNOME Volume Manager, Project Utopia and Beagle. (Full article...)
Jon "maddog" Hall (born 7 August 1950) is the board chair for the Linux Professional Institute. (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...)- 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...) - Keith Packard (born April 16, 1963) is a software developer, best known for his work on the X Window System.
Packard is responsible for many X extensions and technical papers on X. He has been heavily involved in the development of X since the late 1980s as a member of the MIT X Consortium, XFree86 and the X.Org Foundation. (Full article...)
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...)
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...)
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General images -
The following are images from various Linux-related articles on Wikipedia.
Cloud Ubuntu Orange Box
Debian 10 "Buster" box cover (from Debian)
Sankey diagram of Linux Kernel Source Lines of Code (from Linux kernel)
Logo of Debian GNU/kFreeBSD (from Debian)
Debian 10 "Buster", 2019 (from Debian)
Debian 3.1 "Sarge" (from Debian)
Fedora Workstation 41 with its default applications (from Fedora Linux)
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)
Eucalyptus interface (from Ubuntu)
The core values of the Fedora community (from Fedora Linux)
alt=UbuntuDDE logo (from Ubuntu)
Fedora 21, a version that brought experimental Wayland and HiDPI support (December 2014) (from Fedora Linux)
Linux kernel panic output (from Linux kernel)
Redevelopment costs of Linux kernel (from Linux kernel)
alt=Ubuntu Sway logo (from Ubuntu)
Ian Murdock, Debian's founder, in 2008 (from Debian)
Fedora with the KDE Plasma Desktop, formerly 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)
Debian 12 "Bookworm" installation menu (from Debian)
Four interfaces are distinguished: two internal to the kernel, and two between the kernel and userspace. (from Linux kernel)
The official logo (also known as open use logo) that contains the well-known Debian swirl (from Debian)
Debian 3 "Woody", 2002 (from Debian)
alt=Ubuntu Asahi logo (from Ubuntu)
A fresh install of Silverblue 41 (from Fedora Linux)
Logo of GNU Hurd (from Debian)
Package installed with aptitude (from Debian)
Boot messages of a Linux kernel 2.6.25.17 (from Linux kernel)
The Linux Storage Stack Diagram (from Linux kernel)![Image 37Ubuntu family tree[dubious – discuss] (from Ubuntu)](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/79/UbuntuFamilyTree1210.svg/120px-UbuntuFamilyTree1210.svg.png?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=parser&utm_content=thumbnail)
Map of the Linux kernel (from Linux kernel)
Debian 13 "Trixie" running KDE Plasma 6 in a live environment (from Debian)
The Linux kernel supports various hardware architectures, providing a common platform for software, including proprietary software. (from Linux kernel)
Linus Torvalds at the LinuxCon Europe 2014 (from Linux kernel)
Debian 4 "Etch", 2007 (from Debian)
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![Image 37Ubuntu family tree[dubious – discuss] (from Ubuntu)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:UbuntuFamilyTree1210.svg)
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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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