What is LINUX? Technically speaking, Linux is the Kernel; the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating systems: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. Its under developement since 1991, started by Linus Torvalds. Why use Linux? Most distributions are free Open-source (Completely customizable) Portable to nearly any hardware platform Highly scalable to lots of cores, or lots of memory Highly efficient, therefore useful for computaion Robust and proven security model includes a complete development environment More info at Linux.com