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Linux distinguishes itself from other operating systems such as UNIX and [[Microsoft Windows]] in that the [[source code]] is distributed freely under various [[open source]] licenses. In essence, this means that anybody can modify the code to their needs, and that the development of Linux happens in an open community, rather than in a closed commercial environment. Any improvements to the code will be contributed to the community, and any software that is based upon viral licenses will be, in turn, licenses under these. The Linux kernel itself is licensed under the GNU [[General Public License]] (GPL).

Linux distinguishes itself from other operating systems such as UNIX and [[Microsoft Windows]] in that the [[source code]] is distributed freely under various [[open source]] licenses. In essence, this means that anybody can modify the code to their needs, and that the development of Linux happens in an open community, rather than in a closed commercial environment. Any improvements to the code will be contributed to the community, and any software that is based upon viral licenses will be, in turn, licenses under these. The Linux kernel itself is licensed under the GNU [[General Public License]] (GPL).

Linux is also different to the closed source operating system vendors in that the software is distributed by many different companies. Major Linux distributions include [http://www.redhat.com/ Red Hat], [http://www.novell.com/linux/ Suse], [http://www.mandriva.com/ Mandriva] and [http://www.ubuntu.com/ Ubuntu]. There are literally hundreds of Linux distributions as can be seen on [http://distrowatch.com DistroWatch.com].

Linux is also different to the closed source operating system vendors in that the software is distributed by many different companies. Major Linux distributions include [http://www.redhat.com/ Red Hat], [http://www.novell.com/linux/ SUSE], [http://www.debian.org/ Debian] and [http://www.ubuntu.com/ Ubuntu]. There are literally hundreds of Linux distributions as can be seen on [http://distrowatch.com DistroWatch.com].

In 2005 [http://www.forbes.com/ Forbes.com] posted [http://www.forbes.com/2005/03/15/cz_dl_0315linux_print.html an article] estimating Linux ran 60% of the world's top supercomputers at that time.  In 2003 the [[IBM]] Linux Technology Center [http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-rel/?ca=dgr-lnxw01LTP concluded] that Linux has enterprise class reliability.  Linux servers can run without reboot for years as can usually be seen at the [http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/today/top.avg.html Longest uptimes] URL on [http://www.netcraft.com/ Netcraft.com]. Another location to check on Linux uptime statistics is the [http://counter.li.org/reports/uptimestats.php Machine uptimes] page at [http://counter.li.org/ Linux Counter].  It is worth mentioning that there are other free operating systems not based on the Linux kernel that Linux borrows from and has been a source of inspiration to: namely [http://www.freebsd.org/ FreeBSD], [http://www.openbsd.org OpenBSD], [http://www.netbsd.org NetBSD], and dragonflyBSD, and the more recent Minix 3 and openSolaris.  Free operating systems allow a great deal of new ideas to be tried and collaboration made possible by the Internet makes teams easy to form. [http://www.netbsd.org NetBSD] claims to run on [http://www.netbsd.org/ports/ almost any hardware], [http://www.openbsd.org OpenBSD] has a goal to become the [http://www.openbsd.org/security.html most secure operating system] in the world, and [http://www.freebsd.org/ FreeBSD] has been powering computers for free since [http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/history.html before Linux became popular].  [http://www.opensolaris.org/ OpenSolaris] is a free version of [http://www.sun.com/ SUN Microsystems] proprietary Solaris OS.

In 2005 [http://www.forbes.com/ Forbes.com] posted [http://www.forbes.com/2005/03/15/cz_dl_0315linux_print.html an article] estimating Linux ran 60% of the world's top supercomputers at that time.  In 2003 the [[IBM]] Linux Technology Center [http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-rel/?ca=dgr-lnxw01LTP concluded] that Linux has enterprise class reliability.  Linux servers can run without reboot for years as can usually be seen at the [http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/today/top.avg.html Longest uptimes] URL on [http://www.netcraft.com/ Netcraft.com]. Another location to check on Linux uptime statistics is the [http://counter.li.org/reports/uptimestats.php Machine uptimes] page at [http://counter.li.org/ Linux Counter].  It is worth mentioning that there are other free operating systems not based on the Linux kernel that Linux borrows from and has been a source of inspiration to: namely [http://www.freebsd.org/ FreeBSD], [http://www.openbsd.org OpenBSD], [http://www.netbsd.org NetBSD], and dragonflyBSD, and the more recent Minix 3 and openSolaris.  Free operating systems allow a great deal of new ideas to be tried and collaboration made possible by the Internet makes teams easy to form. [http://www.netbsd.org NetBSD] claims to run on [http://www.netbsd.org/ports/ almost any hardware], [http://www.openbsd.org OpenBSD] has a goal to become the [http://www.openbsd.org/security.html most secure operating system] in the world, and [http://www.freebsd.org/ FreeBSD] has been powering computers for free since [http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/history.html before Linux became popular].  [http://www.opensolaris.org/ OpenSolaris] is a free version of [http://www.sun.com/ SUN Microsystems] proprietary Solaris OS.