Linux is a <EM>free</em> *(UNIX)&trade; compliant *(OS) implementation written by _("Linus Torvalds"|http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/05.08.97/cover/linus-9719.html) and lots of people on the Internet.

<ul class="implementations">Though it was originally developed for 32 bit intel PCs, it now also runs on (at least):
<li>the _("16-bit i8086"|http://elks.sourceforge.net/) (_(aka) ELKS: The Embeddable Linux Kernel System);</li>
<li>_("Compaq Alpha AXP"|http://www.linuxalpha.org/);</li>
<li>Sun _("SPARC"|http://www.ultralinux.org/) and _("UltraSPARC"|http://www.ultralinux.org/);</li>
<li>_("Motorola 68000"|http://www.linux-m68k.org/)
  <ul>
    <li>_("Mac"|http://www.mac.linux-m68k.org/);</li>
    <li>_("NeXT Cube"|http://www.black.linux-m68k.org/);</li>
  </ul>
<li>_("PowerPC"|http://penguinppc.org/intro.shtml);</li>
<li>_("PowerPC64"|http://linuxppc64.org/);</li>
<li>_("ARM"|http://www.arm.linux.org.uk/);</li>
<li>_("Hitachi SuperH"|http://linuxsh.sourceforge.net/);</li>
<li>_("IBM S/390"|http://oss.software.ibm.com/linux390/index.shtml);</li>
<li>_("MIPS"|http://oss.sgi.com/mips/howtos.html);</li>
<li>_("HP PA-RISC"|http://www.parisc-linux.org/);</li>
<li>_("Intel IA-64"|http://www.linuxia64.org/);</li>
<li>_("DEC VAX"|http://linux-vax.sourceforge.net/);</li>
<li>_("AMD x86-64"|http://www.x86-64.org/) and _("CRIS"|http://developer.axis.com/software/linux/) architectures and various _("microcontrollers"|http://www.uclinux.org/) (aka uClinux -- Embedded Linux Microcontroller Project) without a Memory Management Unit (_(MMU)).</li>
</ul>

<ul class="links">Some canonical Linux WWW pages:
<li>_("linux.com"|http://www.linux.org);</li>
<li>_("linux.org"|http://www.linux.org);</li>
<li>_("linux.org.uk"|http://www.linux.org.uk);</li>
<li>_("debian.org"|http://www.debian.org);</li>
<li>_("redhat.com"|http://www.redhat.com);</li>
<li>_("gentoo.org"|http://www.gentoo.org);</li>
<li>_("Mandrakelinux.com"|http://www.mandrakelinux.com).</li>
</ul>

<ul class="links">Documentation can be found from:
<li>_("The Linux Documentation Project"|http://www.tldp.org/) (LDP), an effort to produce a series of books/articles/manuals to document Linux (the LDP page also has many links to other Linux related sites);</li>
<li>_("Linux Manual pages WWW access"|http://www.sonic.net/cgi-bin/man);</li>
For Kernel Hackers:
<li>the online _("Kernel Hacker's Guide"|http://www.redhat.com:8080/HyperNews/get/khg.html);</li>
<li>_("kernelnotes.org"|http://www.kernelnotes.org);</li>
<li>_("The Linux Kernel Archives"|http://kernel.org).</li>
</ul>

If you seek help on Linux, you should first check all the documentation above. Also, individual packages have READMEs, FAQs, and local documentation that you should check (sometimes only available in the source distribution, not in binary packages).

<ul class="links">If you still don't succeed after carefully reading the docs many times, you might ask for help on one of the IRC networks:
<li>_("Freenode"|http://freenode.net) (channel #Linpeople);</li>
<li>_("Undernet"|http://www.undernet.org) (channel #Linux);</li>
<li>_("EFnet"|http://efnet.org/) (channel #Linux);</li>
<li>_("DALnet"|http://www.dal.net/) (channel #Linux), etc.</li>
</ul>

If you want to toy with both Linux and Open/Net/FreeBSD, a lot of useful information is available in the _("Linux+FreeBSD mini-HOWTO"|http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/Linux+FreeBSD.html).


<A NAME="GGI"></A>Finally, people who want to develop a graphics system on their OS should definitely have a look at the Linux project and standard to be, _("GGI"|http://www.ggi-project.org/) (the Generic Graphic Interface).

<ul class="links">Linux is not <em>just</em> a fun *(OS). It has lots applications in the so-called Real-World, such as:
<li>_("LEAP (GNU/Linux-Equipped Astronauts Project)"|http://www.cantrip.org/leap.html);</li>
<li>rendering for the movie _("Titanic"|http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=2494);</li>
<li>running _("mission-critical servers"|http://www.tux.org/mclinux/results.html);</li>
<li>running a growing number of _("internet servers"|http://leb.net/hzo/ioscount/data/top.domains.9901.linux.txt);</li>
<li>running in large companies such as _("Apple"|http://www.netcraft.com/Survey/Reports/199902/developers/apple.html) or _("Novell"|http://www.netcraft.com/Survey/Reports/199902/developers/novell.html).</li>
</ul>
