Linux Kernel
The Linux kernel is a monolithic, Unix-like operating system kernel. It is the core component of the GNU/Linux operating system, responsible for managing system resources, hardware interactions, process scheduling, and providing an abstraction layer for user-space applications. Developed as free…
Key facts
- First appeared
- 1991
- Category
- cloud_infrastructure
- Problem solved
- The Linux kernel was created to provide a free, open-source, and UNIX-like operating system kernel that could run on standard PC hardware, addressing the limitations and licensing costs associated with commercial UNIX systems (like System V and Solaris) and academic, proprietary (though freely available for academic use) kernels like MINIX. Linus Torvalds sought to build a hobby OS that was more powerful and extensible than MINIX.
- Platforms
- mainframes (IBM Z), RISC-V, SPARC, various embedded platforms, ARM (mobile, embedded, servers), x86/x64 (desktops, servers), MIPS, PowerPC
Related technologies
Notable users
- Amazon (Amazon Web Services - AWS)
- IBM
- Red Hat
- SUSE
- Meta (Facebook)
- Netflix
- Google (Android, Chrome OS, Google Cloud)
- Tesla (embedded systems)
- Oracle
- Canonical (Ubuntu)
- Microsoft (Azure, Windows Subsystem for Linux - WSL)
- SpaceX (embedded systems)