Just what is “Linux”?

“Recently I have had several people call me on mis-stepping the
nomenclature surrounding the Linux operating system. But I get this
a lot, and from all points of the spectrum: From newbies to power
users. The central issue that I have is that this issue causes
great confusion with newbies and anger with power users. To that
end, I thought I would put forth a few ideas that could solve this
issue. It’s confusing, it’s frustrating, and it’s
rooted in years of heavy geek war. So read on and chime in. Your
input is valuable.

“I will preface this by saying I am not associated with any
distribution or any developer. I am a technical writer who has
covered the Linux operating system since 1998. And although I have
interviewed and chatted many of the top-level developers and
creators (even Linus himself), I am not in constant contact with
them. Now…let’s discuss this “Linux”
issue.

“Technically speaking…

“If you look at the Wikipedia definition of Linux you will find
it terms Linux as the “generic term for UNIX-like computer
operating systems based on the Linux kernel.” So already we
have the purists up in arms. Why is that? The purists speak of
“Linux” as nothing more than a kernel. But if Linux is
only a kernel, what is an operating system?”

Complete
Story