Linux is an operating system kernel used by a family of Unix-like operating systems. These are popularly termed Linux operating systems and the name is also used for the various Linux distributions built on top of the operating system.
The Linux kernel is released under the GNU General Public License version 2 (GPLv2) and developed by contributors worldwide; Linux is one of the most prominent examples of Open Source software.
The Linux kernel was initially conceived and created by Finnish software engineer Linus Torvalds in 1991.