Linux kernel
Unix-like operating system kernel, basis for all Linux operating systems
The Linux kernel is a free and open-source 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. Since the late 1990s, it has been included in many operating system distributions, many of which are called Linux. One such Linux kernel operating system is Android, which is used in many mobile and embedded devices.
Most of the kernel code is written in C as supported by the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC), which has extensions beyond standard C. The code also contains assembly code for architecture-specific logic such as optimizing memory use and task execution. The kernel has a modular design such that modules can be integrated as software components – including dynamically loaded. The kernel is monolithic in an architectural sense since the entire OS kernel runs in kernel space.
Linux is provided under the GNU General Public License version 2, although it contains files under other compatible licenses.
History
In 1991, Linus Torvalds was a computer science student enrolled at the University of Helsinki. During his time there, he began to develop an operating system as a side-project inspired by UNIX, for a personal computer.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q14579. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1991.
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This entry incorporates text from “Linux kernel” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.