There are so many Linux distributions out in the wild, but there is only one de facto thing that they have in common: the Linux kernel. But while it’s often talked about, a lot of people don’t really know exactly what it does.
Let’s take a look at what the Linux kernel really does and why it’s needed, with as few geeky terms as possible.
What’s a Kernel?
Each operating system uses a kernel. Without a kernel, you can’t have an operating system that actually works. Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux all have kernels, and they’re all different. It’s the kernel that also does the grunt work of the operating system. Besides the kernel, there are a lot of applications that are bundled with the kernel to make the entire package something useful — more on that a bit later.
The kernel’s job is to talk to the hardware and software, and to manage the system’s resources as best as possible. It talks to the hardware via the drivers that are included in the kernel (or additionally installed later on in the form of a kernel module). This way, when an application wants to do something (say change the volume setting of the speakers), it can just submit that request to the kernel, and the kernel can use the driver it has for the speakers to actually change the volume.
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