What is Operating System ? What is Kernel ? What is Linux?

Lot of people get scared when they here they have to work on Linux,

You don't have to. To drive a Car  you do not have to know how engine works. Similarly to use Linux you don't have to necessarily know how it all works.

Below notes are for those who want there basics to be strong.

In this post I am going to teach you.


  • What is Operating System?
  • What is Kernel?
  • What is Linux?
  • What is Distribution?


What is operating System?
Operating system is software between you and your computer hardware machine.

Examples: We have Windows , Macintosh, RedHat, Ubunto etc 

Operating system is like a perfect manager which manages resources, in life managers manage human resources, OS technically manages computer hardware resources.



What comes to your mind when I say computer resources?


You see some computer hardware resources in above pic like printer, monitor, keyboard on a table.


What is Kernel ?
Kernel is like core of OS, Technically it is bunch of device drivers with which your OS gets access to resources of computer hardware machine.
 

When I say resources, here I mostly refer to CPU, Storage Disk, RAM, Ethernet network card etc

Remember when ever an OS needs access to any of its hardware resources it goes through kernel!


In the above pic your kernel and other software applications together make an OS.