People can freely modify and redistribute it under their own name. Since Linux was first released in 1991, it has continued to gain popularity due to its open-source nature. More accurately, they’re called distributions or distros. This includes all of the most popular Linux based systems like Ubuntu, Fedora, Mint, Debian, and others. Linux is an entire family of open-source Unix operating systems, that are based on the Linux Kernel.
When hearing about Linux, most people think of a complicated operating system that is only used by programmers.
