One day Mickey was walking down a street when he saw Minnie in the market
Mickey – Hey Minnie
Minnie – Hi Mickey. How are you!
Mickey – Hey I am good, You look lost
Minnie – Err! Hmm! Yes, You know I am going to start with learning Linux and I wanted to understand what is Linux
Mickey – Great, so what did you learn
Minnie – I went to the library and tried to get some information but I am still not clear what is Linux, why do we have so many distributions of Linux, how is it different from windows or Mac
Mickey – Oh don’t worry, Let’s sit somewhere and I will explain it in an easy way
Minnie – Wow, great, Let’s Go
Mickey – Let’s think of a Car
Minnie – Okay
Mickey – What is at the core of a Car
Minnie – What do you mean
Mickey – I mean, what drives a car
Minnie – Hmm! I think the Engine
Mickey – Yes, Exactly, Now think of Car as Operating System and Engine as Kernel of the Operating System
Minnie – Great
Mickey – So kernel is an important part of the Operating System and you cannot use OS without kernel
Minnie – Got it so far
Mickey – But you cannot drive an engine, You need other components like gear, steering, wheels, brakes and more
Minnie – Of course
Mickey – Similarly, you cannot use the kernel on its own, you will need other tools like shell, commands, gui etc to interact with the kernel and use the Operating System
Minnie – I am getting this
Mickey – Great
Minnie – I have a question here
Mickey – Sure Minnie
Minnie – Do other operating systems like Windows also have kernel
Mickey – Yes, Minnie, Windows, macOS and other operating systems have a kernel underneath as well. Microsoft Windows operating systems are based on the Windows NT kernel. Apple’s macOS is based on the XNU kernel
Minnie – Got it
Mickey – You can think of Microsoft as an automobile company that makes general purpose cars (the Windows Operating System) that is hugely popular and dominates the car market. They use their own patented engine (kernel) that no one else can use. But these ‘Microsoft cars’ do not offer any scope for customization. You cannot modify the engine on your own
Minnie – I am getting this
Mickey – Now we come to the ‘Apple automobile’. They offer shiny-looking, luxury cars at an expensive price. If you have a problem, they have a premium support system where they might just replace the car
Minnie – Yes, I know
Mickey – Now comes Linux, remember Linux is just an engine (kernel). But this ‘Linux engine’ is not patented and thus anyone is free to use, modify and build cars (desktop operating systems)
Minnie – Wow
Mickey – Hope you got what is Linux
Minnie – Yes, Mickey, who created Linux
Mickey – Linux was developed by Linus Torvalds and released in Sep 1991
Minnie – I have a question, why are there so many distributions of Linux
Mickey – There can be so many cars, different category, different uses etc. Linux engine is free and so several vehicle manufacturer use it but for building different types of cars as per the need and use
Anyone can use the Linux engine to build a vehicle on top of it
Minnie – So, that is why Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, SUSE, and many other Linux-based operating systems (also called Linux distributions or Linux distros) exist
Mickey – Exactly
Minnie – I have a question
Mickey – Yes Minnie
Minnie – Linux is free to use and modify, Right
Mickey – Yes
Minnie – So suppose I take a linux engine car (i.e. install a Linux os), can I then change or modify
Mickey – Yes, you can, Think of it as like customizing cars. You may modify a car to change the look and feel and same you can do in Linux
Minnie – Got it. You made it so easy
Mickey – Let’s go home now
Minnie – No Mickey, let’s sit for some more time. You are my best friend
Mickey – I am always there for you 🙂
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References
https://itsfoss.com/what-is-linux/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux
