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This is an accepted version of this page This is the latest accepted revision, reviewed on 19 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 ...
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.
There is no standard for defining the term, and some difference of opinion is possible as to the degree to which a given operating system is "Unix-like". Debian-based operating system —Debian is a Unix-like computer operating system that is composed entirely of free software, most of which is under the GNU General Public License and packaged ...
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.
MS-DOS (acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft.Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and some operating systems attempting to be compatible with MS-DOS, are sometimes referred to as "DOS" (which is also the generic acronym for disk operating system).
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.
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 ]
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.