I've sometimes heard that Linux itself is just the kernel, and what is added to that (including the GNU tools and other software, shells, and
GUI if desired) is what makes it a complete OS.
That is 100% accurate. Technically, Linux is only the kernel. Which is why no distro calls itself just 'Linux'.
People often refer to
all the distros generally as Linux, which isn't really wrong, but each Linux distro could be considered its own OS.
Again, that's true. The only commonality between Arch, Debian, and Manjaro,
for instance, is the kernel. However, a majority of newer distros are based
on Ubuntu, or at least Debian (which Ubuntu is based on), and therefore are very similar. Which brings us right back to the start of our conversation. :)
I like to see innovation
in the different flavors of Linux, but differences in dependencies and package management systems can make things difficult.
Yes, and no. Certainly, there is a learning curve when changing to a
completely different distro. But the underlying concepts remain the same, because the kernel is the same. One will always need a package manager, for instance. The names and syntax might be different, but they all do the same job. The command line is, for the most part, also the same.
A man from England, and a woman from China, are both human. They both have eyes, ears, arms, legs, hands, and feet. They will look and sound different from each other, but more alike than, say, a human and a fish.
Linux is kinda like that; many different Linux-es, but they're all more alike with each other than they are with Windows.
McDoob
SysOp, PiBBS
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