Understanding Kernel

The Linux kernel provides the basic services and device drivers used by all other programs running on a Linux OS system as we can see in the diagram.

The kernel is the part of the Operating System(OS) that interacts directly with the hardware of computer through device drivers that are built into the kernel. It provides set of services that can be used by programs insulating these programs from the underlying hardware.

Major functions of kernel are:

1. to manage computer memory

2.to control acces to the computer

3.to maintain file system

4.to handle interrupts

5.to handel errors

6.to perform input and output services(which allows computers to interact with terminals storage devices and printers) and

7.to allocate the resources of the computer(such as CPU and input/output devices) among users.

History Of Linux

The History of Linux began in 1991 with the commencement of a personal project by, Linus Torvalds (a Finnish student) to create a new operating system kernel. Since then the resulting Linux kernel has been marked by constant growth throughout its history. Since the initial release of its source code in 1991, it has grown from a small number of C files under a license prohibiting commercial distribution to its state in 2009 of over 370 megabytes of source under the GNU (General Public License).

See this too....

1) Free Unix!
Starting this Thanksgiving I am going to write a complete Unix-compatible software system called GNU (for Gnu's Not Unix), and give it away free (1) to everyone who can use it. Contributions of time, money, programs and equipment are greatly needed...

- Richard Stallman; Posting to net.unix-wizards; 27 Sept. 1983.

2) Hello everybody out there using minix - I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones... I'd like to know what features most people would want. Any suggestions are welcome, but I won't promise I'll implement them :-)

- Linus Torvalds; Posting to comp.os.minix; 25 Aug. 1991.