Getting linux

Linux is just a kernel, which is the core of a operating system.

Usually you need many programs, like a desk top environment and a konsole (in unix-terms: a shell) to be able to install and run programs. Many of these programs, e.g. the konsole(=shell) or a C-compiler to build the kernel were distributed with a special license, the GNU Public License, which is a free license: usually these programs do not cost money.

A core of operating system relevant programs underlying the GNU Public License forms the GNU project. As Linux without these programs would be just a useless operating system core, some people refer to Linux as the operating system core and to GNU/Linux as the core and the programs.

The combination of Linux and GNU programs (=GNU/Linux) plus usually also programs underlying other free licenses like Apache is called a distribution.

Linux<GNU/Linux<=Distribution

A good description of the most prominent distributions (there are hundrets of them) along with download instructions can be found at http://www.getlinux.info/