Linux is an open‑source operating system based on Unix ideas. It started in 1991 when Linus Torvalds began working on a small kernel while using Minix, a teaching operating system created by Andrew Tanenbaum. Linux was first just a personal project, but it quickly grew into a full Unix‑like system that anyone could study, change, and improve.

Developers around the world started contributing to the Linux kernel, and over time, it became the base for many distributions like Debian, Ubuntu, Red Hat, CentOS, and Arch. Today, Linux runs servers, cloud systems, routers, phones, and much of the modern internet infrastructure.