What seperates

[azezpz1]

What seperates the linux kernel from the other OS's, besides it's open source-ness (I make up a new word).

[genesus]

Do you want a paragraph, essay, book, or just too lazy for google?

[azezpz1]

To lazy, mostly I just wanted peoples opinions more than a technical desccription.

[techieMoe]

Linux versus MS Windows - You can't see the source to the MS Windows kernel without signing lots of paperwork and promising you won't modify or copy any of it. Only the developers at Microsoft can do anything about bugs that exist, and 90% of the time, even they don't know about them. The MS Windows kernel is commercial, closed source.

Linux versus BSD - Linux was created by Linus Torvalds from his own head. It was never, and will likely never be, closed-source. BSD was a branch of commercial AT&T UNIX code that was eventually rewritten, but it still shares a direct line of descent from a commercial, closed-source project.

Linux versus Mac OS X - OS X uses much BSD code, so it also is a UNIX descendant. Although parts of the kernel are open-sourced (Darwin), parts are not, and since it uses BSD-licensed rather than GPL-licensed code, Apple is not compelled to release any of it. Linux is released under the GPL license, so if you use and distribute it you must provide the source code.

Linux versus Solaris - see BSD. Although Solaris as far as I know descended from a different brand of UNIX, it's still UNIX, and as much as Sun would like you to believe, the source code is not open.

As for comparisons about things other than open-source, I don't want to get into a flame war about XXX feature or YYY feature that one has and the other doesn't. We here at this forum like Linux. End of story.

[azezpz1]

So the fact that anyone can edit, debug the kernel, is what makes the Linux kernel so great. Very interesting. Thanks!

[genesus]

Wow, Moe. Nice summations