The kernel is a piece of software that, roughly speaking, provides a layer between the hardware and the application programs running on a computer. In a strict, computer-science sense, the term 'Linux' refers only to the kernel - the software that Linus Torvalds wrote in the early 90s.
All the other pieces you find in a Linux distribution - the Bash shell, the KDE window manager, web browsers, the X server, Tux Racer and everything else - are just applications that happen to run on Linux and are emphatically not part of the operating system itself.
Continue Reading... All the other pieces you find in a Linux distribution - the Bash shell, the KDE window manager, web browsers, the X server, Tux Racer and everything else - are just applications that happen to run on Linux and are emphatically not part of the operating system itself.
source:http://linuxpoison.blogspot.com/2011/02/135781677516124.html