06. 09. 09
an OS X style desktop or any other style desktop you wish as the two most commonly used Linux based graphics desktop environments, GNOME and KDE, are completely configurable to your own preferred style or use. I use the word free above in the context of "free to use" and yes "free to modify" but, free to modify comes with some provisos. Under the GNU license which the Linux Kernel adheres to, if you modify a copy of the Linux Kernel, you must make this available to anyone else. The idea being that others may benefit from your modifications and they in turn may do the same and offer a continuation of improvements that will benefit the whole Linux community.
Well that's the basis of Linux. It's not an operating system on it's own but forms the first building block on which GNU based operating systems are based. Here is just a sample list of these type of operating systems, also referred to as distributions or distros: Ubuntu, Fedora, Mint, openSUSE, Mandriva, Debian, PCLinuxOS, Puppy, Sabayon, Arch, CentOS, Slackware, MEPIS, Tiny Core, FreeBSD, Kubuntu, Zenwalk, Vector, PC-BSD, Damn Small, Gentoo, KNOPPIX.
