One of the great challenges of Linux is that it can mean many things to many people. This is one of its great strengths too. Some people think of Linux as a distribution; a collection of software that makes a computer function. To others, Linux is nothing more than the kernel, the code that interfaces between programs and hardware. Even calling Linux an “operating system” is misleading. The term “Linux” is unambiguous when you’re talking about the kernel, but when you’re talking about a distribution, it becomes more of a moving target. The contents of the various Linux distributions can vary quite a bit, and the fact that typical installation procedures offer tremendous flexibility in selecting exactly which operating system components are installed only compounds this effect. The difference between two Linux systems can be far more radical than with other flavors of UNIX. When you walk up to an unfamiliar Linux system, you never really know what you are going to find. On the other hand, this variability also brings flexibility, and Linux offers system administrators much more control over their system than many other UNIX variants.
The software that makes up the current Linux distributions comes from a variety of sources: the Linux kernel itself, commands and…
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