Linux Kernel
From GTALUG
Contents |
Linux Kernel
The reason to have something called Linux, in the first place, is the Linux operating system kernel.
The official home of the Linux kernel is [1]; that is where Linus Torvalds puts official releases of the source code to this wondrous program.
Linux is a clone of the operating system Unix, written from scratch by Linus Torvalds with assistance from a loosely-knit team of hackers across the Net. It aims towards POSIX and Single UNIX Specification compliance.
It has all the features you would expect in a modern fully-fledged Unix, including true multitasking, virtual memory, shared libraries, demand loading, shared copy-on-write executables, proper memory management, and multistack networking including IPv4 and IPv6.
Although originally developed first for 32-bit x86-based PCs (386 or higher), today Linux also runs on (at least) the Compaq Alpha AXP, Sun SPARC and UltraSPARC, Motorola 68000, PowerPC, ARM, Hitachi SuperH, IBM S/390, MIPS, HP PA-RISC, Intel IA-64, DEC VAX, AMD x86-64, AXIS CRIS, Renesas M32R, and Atmel AVR32 architectures; for many of these architectures in both 32- and 64-bit variants.
Linux is easily portable to most general-purpose 32- or 64-bit architectures as long as they have a paged memory management unit (PMMU) and a port of the GNU C compiler (gcc) . Linux has also been ported to a number of architectures without a PMMU, although functionality is then obviously somewhat limited. See the µClinux project for more info.
Various Relevant Links
- Git is the revision control software used to manage Linux source code since 2005.
Difference between Linux and BSD OSes
One of the vital differences between Linux and the various flavours of BSD is with regards to what the respective systems consider to be the "core."
With Linux, the central project is *solely* the kernel. The Linux Git repository is comprised solely of code relating to the kernel.
In contrast, BSD "core" typically consists of everything required to build and deploy the BSD core, which therefore includes the C compiler, binary utilities, file utilities, and such.
Toronto Linux Kernel Links
- Tornado/K42 - A U(T)/IBM project building a Linux-compatible microkernel system
