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Linux is the free Unix written from scratch by Linus Torvalds with assistance from a loosely-knit team of hackers from across the Internet. Linux aims towards POSIX compliance, and has all of the features you would expect of a modern, fully-fledged Unix: true multitasking, virtual memory, shared libraries, demand loading, shared, copy-on-write executables, proper memory management, and TCP/IP networking.
Linux runs mainly on 386/486/586-based PCs, using the hardware facilities of the 386 processor family (TSS segments, et al.) to implement these features. Ports to other architectures are underway.
You need a 386, 486 or 586, with at least 2Mb of RAM and a single floppy, to try Linux. To do anything useful, more RAM (4Mb to install most distributions, and 8Mb is highly recommended for running X) and a hard disk are required.
VESA local bus and PCI are supported.
MCA (IBM's proprietary bus) and ESDI hard drives are mostly supported. There is further information on the MCA bus and what cards Linux supports on the Micro Channel Linux web page, http://glycerine.itsmm.uni.edu/mca.
Linux runs on 386 family based laptops, with X on most of them. There is a relevant Web page at http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kharker/linux-laptop/.
10Mb for a very minimal installation, suitable for trying it out and not much else.
You can squeeze a more complete installation including X Windows into 80Mb. Installating almost all of Debian 0.93R6 takes around 500Mb, including some space for user files and spool areas.
Linux is freely available, and no one is required to register their copies with any central authority, so it is difficult to know. Several businesses are now surviving solely on selling and supporting Linux, and very few Linux users use those businesses, relatively speaking. ]
The Linux newsgroups are some of the most heavily read on the Net, so the number is likely in the hundreds of thousands, but firm numbers are hard to come by.
However, one brave soul, Harald T. Alvestrand <[email protected]>, has decided to try, and asks that if you use Linux, you send a message to <[email protected]> with one of the following subjects: `I use Linux at home', `I use Linux at 'work', or `I use Linux at home and at work'. He will also accept `third-party' registrations -- ask him for details.
Alternatively, you can register using the WWW forms found at http://domen.uninett.no/hta/linux/counter.htm.
He posts his counts to comp.os.linux.misc each month; alternatively look on aun.uninett.no in /pub/misc/linux-counter or at the web page above.
This is a matter of religious debate, of course!
If you want to hear Linus himself say how he pronounces it download english.au or swedish.au from ftp.funet.fi (in /pub/OS/Linux/PEOPLE/Linus/SillySounds). If you have a soundcard or the PC-speaker audio driver you can hear them by typing
cat english.au >/dev/audio
The difference isn't in the pronunciation of Linux but in the language Linus uses to say hello. The English version was parodied very well by Jin Choi as "Hi, my name is Leenoos Torvahlds and I pronounce Leenooks as Leenooks."
For the benefit of those of you who don't have the equipment or inclination: Linus pronounces Linux approximately as Leenus, where the ee is as in feet but rather shorter and the u is like a much shorter version of the French eu sound in peur (pronouncing it as the u in put is probably passable).
When speaking English I pronounce it Lie-nucks (u as in bucket) --- this is an anglicised pronunciation based on the analogy with Linus' name, which in English is usually pronounced Lie-nus (u as in put). It is of course quite acceptable and common to modify the pronunciation of a proper noun when it changes languages.
I think I can safely say that the pronunciation Linnucks (short i as in pit, short u as in bucket) is wrong in English, as it is not the original Swedish pronunciation, not a sensible direct anglicisation of it, and not based on the anglicised version of Linus' name.