this post was submitted on 31 May 2025
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Explain Like I'm Five

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ELI5: What the heck is linux? (lazysoci.al)
submitted 4 days ago by LadyButterfly@lazysoci.al to c/explainlikeimfive@lemmy.world
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I'm old. I don't understand it.

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[–] theotherbelow@lemmynsfw.com 4 points 4 days ago

There's Microsoft windows and there's Linux. No single person owns Linux so there are so many different options to use (called distros) the big ones Debian, Fedora, Arch, OpenSUSE, Etc package open source software on top of Linux that enable you to use it as easily as possible.

To a 25yo I would say, a computer has many separate devices like USB controllers, sound devices, so many independent systems that need software to work. Such software is copyrighted, it turns out the community does not like that so they made their own that is owned by the community. Sometimes its not perfect but it also can do things you couldn't before.