Linux

Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, has defined always his own system as: "an operating system for hackers written by a hacker".

Kernel:

The kernel is the core of the system, is the level to which the programs are turned for whatever operation. It ideally winds the computer and its physical devices or the whole hardware occupying itself to interact with the programs that ignore the physical computer.

Distro:

The distributions thin Unix-like to today you publish are "around" 369. Of these, 360 are GNU/Linux and 9 BSD.
I naturally am not able to link all of them distributions, I take therefore in consideration only the most diffused, the estimators and the consumers of the others forgive me!

|Debian|Fedora|Gentoo|Knoppix|Mandriva|Slackware|SuSE|

Free Software

The term "free software" at times it is interpreted ache. It doesn't have anything to that to see with the price of the software, deals with liberty. Here, therefore, the definition.
free software:
a program is free software for a datum consumer if:
- the consumer has the liberty to perform the program for any purpose;
- the consumer has the liberty to modify the program according to his/her own needs (because this liberty has some effect in practice, to have access is necessary to the rising code of the program, since to bring changes to a program without having the rising code is extremely difficult);
- the consumer has the liberty to distribute copies of the program, free or behind remuneration;
- the consumer has the liberty to distribute versions modified of the program, so' that the community' can enjoy some brought improvements.

Hacker

:hacker: n. [originally, someone who makes furniture with an axe] 1. A person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary. 2. One who programs enthusiastically (even obsessively) or who enjoys programming rather than just theorizing about programming. 3. A person capable of appreciating {hack value}. 4. A person who is good at programming quickly. 5. An expert at a particular program, or one who frequently does work using it or on it; as in "a Unix hacker". (Definitions 1 through 5 are correlated, and people who fit them congregate.) 6. An expert or enthusiast of any kind. One might be an astronomy hacker, for example. 7. One who enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming or circumventing limitations. 8. [deprecated] A malicious meddler who tries to discover sensitive information by poking around. Hence "password hacker", "network hacker". The correct term for this sense is {cracker}.

[Jargon File]