Linux

[lin-uhks, lin-ooks]

Computers, Trademark.

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

linux

/ ˈlaɪnʌks /

noun

1. a nonproprietary computer operating system suitable for use on personal computers

Word History and Origins

Origin of linux¹

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

Example Sentences

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.

Read more on 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”.

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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.

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

Read more on 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.

Read more on New York Times