Topicala
Topicala is a simple, small, meta-search engine, that helps You find the sites you need. Created By Paul Kinlan. Web Hosting by SwitchMedia.
Search [?]  
Dictionary Results For "linux" [?]/[OPML]
Ads By Google
Wiktionary Articles [RSS] - [GNU, www.Wiktionary.org]

English

Etymology

From the name of its creator, w:Linus_Torvalds|Linus Torvalds, influenced by the term Unix. The first name of Linux was Freax, combining the words "Free" and "Unix", and referring to phreaking. The administrator of the server on which Linux was firstly held didn't like the connection to phreaking, and therefore w:Linus|Linus changed it to Linux

Pronunciation

  • , IPA: /ˈlɪnəks/, or
  • , IPA: /ˈlɪnʊks/, or
  • , IPA: ˈlɑɪnəks,


Proper noun

  1. In the Context of A free Unix-like operating system kernel created by W:Linus Torvalds|Linus Torvalds and released under the W:GNU|GNU W:GNU General Public License|General Public License.
  2. In the Context of One of any number of systems that uses Linux as its kernel.


Usage notes

  • In the sense of "one of any number of systems that uses Linux as its kernel", some prefer the term GNU/Linux.


Translations

  • Esperanto: {{t+|eo|Linukso|xs=Esperanto}}
  • Finnish:
  • German: {{t+|de|Linux|n}}
  • Japanese: {{t|ja|リナックス|tr=rinakkusu|sc=Jpan}},
  • Polish: {{t+|pl|Linux|m}}
  • Portuguese: {{t+|pt|Linux|m}}
  • Russian: {{t-|ru|Линукс|m|tr=línuks|sc=Cyrl}}
  • Esperanto: {{t+|eo|Linukso|xs=Esperanto}}
  • Finnish:
  • German: {{t+|de|Linux|n}}
  • Japanese: {{t|ja|リナックス|tr=rinakkusu|sc=Jpan}},
  • Polish: {{t+|pl|Linux|m}}
  • Portuguese: {{t+|pt|Linux|m}}
  • Russian: {{t-|ru|Линукс|m|tr=línuks|sc=Cyrl}}

See also


----

Dutch

Proper noun

(plural: Linuxen, Linuxes; diminutive linuxje, plural diminutive linuxjes)

  1. #English|Linux


----

German

Image:Biglinux1.png|thumb|Linux

Proper noun

{{infl|de|proper noun|g=n}}

  1. #English|Linux (free Unix-like operating system)


----

Polish

Pronunciation

  • IPA: [ˈlinuks]


Proper noun

{{infl|pl|proper noun|g=m}}

  1. #English|Linux


Declension

{{pl-decl-noun |Linux|Linuksy |Linuksa|Linuksów |Linuksowi|Linuksom |Linuksa|Linuksy |Linuksem|Linuksami |Linuksie|Linuksach |Linuksie|Linuksy }}

Derived terms


cs:Linux de:Linux es:Linux fr:Linux ko:Linux lt:Linux hu:Linux pl:Linux pt:Linux ru:Linux vi:Linux

WordNet Linux
n : an open-source version of the UNIX operating system
Jargon Linux /lee'nuhks/ or /li'nuks/, _not_ /li:'nuhks/ n. The free Unix
workalike created by Linus Torvalds and friends starting about 1991. The
pronunciation /li'nuhks/ is preferred because the name `Linus' has an
/ee/ sound in Swedish (Linus's family is part of Finland's 6%
ethnic-Swedish minority) and Linus considers English short /i/ to be
closer to /ee/ than English long /i:/. This may be the most remarkable
hacker project in history -- an entire clone of Unix for 386, 486 and
Pentium micros, distributed for free with sources over the net (ports to
Alpha and Sparc and many other machines are also in use).

Linux is what GNU aimed to be, and it relies on the GNU toolset. But
the Free Software Foundation didn't produce the kernel to go with that
toolset until 1999, which was too late. Other, similar efforts like
FreeBSD and NetBSD have been technically successful but never caught
fire the way Linux has; as this is written in 2001, Linux is seriously
challenging Microsoft's OS dominance. It has already captured 31% of the
Internet-server market and 25% of general business servers.

An earlier version of this entry opined "The secret of Linux's success
seems to be that Linus worked much harder early on to keep the
development process open and recruit other hackers, creating a snowball
effect." Truer than we knew. See bazaar.

(Some people object that the name `Linux' should be used to refer only
to the kernel, not the entire operating system. This claim is a proxy
for an underlying territorial dispute; people who insist on the term
`GNU/Linux' want the FSF to get most of the credit for Linux because
RMS and friends wrote many of its user-level tools. Neither this theory
nor the term `GNU/Linux' has gained more than minority acceptance).


FOLDOC Linux

("Linus Unix") /li'nuks/ (but see below)
An implementation of the Unix kernel originally written
from scratch with no proprietary code.

The kernel runs on Intel and Alpha hardware in the general
release, with SPARC, PowerPC, MIPS, ARM, Amiga,
Atari, and SGI in active development. The SPARC, PowerPC,
ARM, PowerMAC - OSF, and 68k ports all support shells,
X and networking. The Intel and SPARC versions have
reliable symmetric multiprocessing.

Work on the kernel is coordinated by Linus Torvalds, who holds
the copyright on a large part of it. The rest of the
copyright is held by a large number of other contributors (or
their employers). Regardless of the copyright ownerships, the
kernel as a whole is available under the GNU {General Public
License}. The GNU project supports Linux as its kernel until
the research Hurd kernel is completed.

This kernel would be no use without application programs.
The GNU project has provided large numbers of quality tools,
and together with other public domain software it is a rich
Unix environment. A compilation of the Linux kernel and these
tools is known as a Linux distribution. Compatibility modules
and/or emulators exist for dozens of other computing
environments.

The kernel version numbers are significant: the odd numbered
series (e.g. 1.3.xx) is the development (or beta) kernel which
evolves very quickly. Stable (or release) kernels have even
major version numbers (e.g. 1.2.xx).

There is a lot of commercial support for and use of Linux,
both by hardware companies such as Digital, IBM, and
Apple and numerous smaller network and integration
specialists. There are many commercially supported
distributions which are generally entirely under the GPL. At
least one distribution vendor guarantees Posix compliance.
Linux is particularly popular for {Internet Service
Providers}, and there are ports to both parallel
supercomputers and embedded microcontrollers. Debian is
one popular open source distribution.

The pronunciation of "Linux" has been a matter of much debate.
Many, including Torvalds, insist on the short I pronunciation
/li'nuks/ because "Linus" has an /ee/ sound in Swedish
(Linus's family is part of Finland's 6% ethnic-Swedish
minority) and Linus considers English short /i/ to be closer
to /ee/ than English long /i:/ dipthong. This is consistent
with the short I in words like "linen". This doesn't stop
others demanding a long I /li:'nuks/ following the english
pronunciation of "Linus" and "minus". Others say /li'niks/
following Minix, which Torvalds was working on before Linux.

{More on pronunciation
(http://www.foldoc.org/pub/linux-pronunciation)}.

LinuxHQ (http://www.linuxhq.com/). {slashdot
(http://slashdot.org/)}. freshmeat (http://freshmeat.net/).
Woven Goods (http://www.fokus.gmd.de/linux/). {Linux
Gazette (http://www.ssc.com/lg)}.

funet Linux Archive (ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/Linux), {US
mirror (ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/)}, {UK Mirror
(ftp://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/packages/Linux/)}.

(2000-06-09)


Created By Paul Kinlan. Web Hosting by SwitchMedia.