Linux

American

[lin-uhks, lin-ooks] / ˈlɪn əks, ˈlɪn ʊks /

Computers, Trademark.

an operating system, based on UNIX, that runs on many different hardware platforms and whose source code is available to the public.

linux British

/ ˈlaɪnʌks /

noun

a nonproprietary computer operating system suitable for use on personal computers

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of Linux

First recorded in 1990–95; named after Linu(s) Benedict Torvalds (born 1969), Finnish software engineer + x as in UNIX ( def. )

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Chromium was created by Google, but it accepts technical contributions from other companies and has support from Meta Platforms Inc., Microsoft Corp. and the Linux Foundation, among others.

From Los Angeles Times

Even Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, the operating system which kick-started the open source revolution in the early 1990s, noted at the Open Source Summit Europe in September that the “kernel maintainers are aging”.

From BBC

Some Macintosh and Linux users, who were immune to the CrowdStrike-induced upheaval, devoted a portion of their morning Friday to spiking the football on Windows, even though the problem wasn’t caused by Microsoft.

From Los Angeles Times

Mac and Linux operating system customers were not affected, the company claimed.

From Salon

Some of the most famous software systems are open source, such as Linux, the operating system that Google’s Android mobile system was built on top of.

From New York Times

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023