What is linux ??

Linus to start with is an operating system , as is windows, so what is different or better than windows, first its for free , just download it from the net and there you , install it your harddisk and off you go, and even if you dont want to install there is knoppix flavour of linux which runs direct from CDROM and gives you all the functionalities you ask for. Next where do you get it , simple go the net, for example to download fedoar which is one of the flavours of linux go to , http://fedora.redhat.com/ and just download the latest version , now it can run on any architecture that is 32 bit or 64 bit, so download the appropriate binary ie x86 or x64. I think this should do for begining.

Linux is an Operating System and it is a flavor of Unix with nice graphical user Interface. Different distribution of linux are Suse, redhat, fedora and many more. it is an Open Source Operating System so any body can get the source code and modify it according to their requirement.

linux is an operating system similar to windows. it is not a version of windows. it is completely different. windows is sold, where as we can get linux for free. and thats a big advantage of linux.