The
Linux kernel is the operating system
kernel used by the
Linux family of
Unix-like operating systems. It is a prominent example of
free and open source software.
The Linux kernel is released under the
GNU General Public License version 2 (GPLv2) (plus some
firmware images with various non-free licenses), and is developed by contributors worldwide. Day-to-day development discussions take place on the
Linux kernel mailing list.
The Linux kernel was initially conceived and created by Finnish
computer science student
Linus Torvalds in 1991. Linux rapidly accumulated developers and users who adapted code from other
free software projects for use with the new operating system. The Linux kernel has received contributions from thousands of programmers. All
Linux distributions released have been based upon the Linux kernel.