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This is an accepted version of this page This is the latest accepted revision, reviewed on 26 December 2024. Family of Unix-like operating systems This article is about the family of operating systems. For the kernel, see Linux kernel. For other uses, see Linux (disambiguation). Operating system Linux Tux the penguin, the mascot of Linux Developer Community contributors, Linus Torvalds Written ...
Modular operating systems such as OS-9 and most modern monolithic-kernel operating systems such as OpenVMS, Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, DragonFly BSD, Solaris, and AIX can dynamically load (and unload) executable kernel modules at runtime. This modularity of the operating system is at the binary (image) level and not at the architecture level.
The operating system provides an interface between an application program and the computer hardware, so that an application program can interact with the hardware only by obeying rules and procedures programmed into the operating system. The operating system is also a set of services which simplify development and execution of application programs.
A Linux distribution [a] (often abbreviated as distro) is an operating system that includes the Linux kernel for its kernel functionality. Although the name does not imply product distribution per se, a distro, if distributed on its own, is often obtained via a website intended specifically for the purpose.
The Linux kernel is a free and open source, [12]: 4 UNIX-like kernel that is used in many computer systems worldwide. The kernel was created by Linus Torvalds in 1991 and was soon adopted as the kernel for the GNU operating system (OS) which was created to be a free replacement for Unix.
An example would be from supervisor mode to protected mode. This is where the operating system performs actions like accessing hardware devices or the memory management unit. Generally the operating system provides a library that sits between the operating system and normal user programs. Usually it is a C library such as Glibc or Windows API ...
See comparison of Linux distributions for a detailed comparison. Linux distributions that have highly modified kernels — for example, real-time computing kernels — should be listed separately. There are also a wide variety of minor BSD operating systems, many of which can be found at comparison of BSD operating systems.
Linux is not inherently fault-tolerant (no operating system is, as it is a function of the whole system including the hardware), but the flight computer software makes it so for its purpose. [68] For flexibility, commercial off-the-shelf parts and system-wide "radiation-tolerant" design are used instead of radiation hardened parts. [ 68 ]