Jan 12, 2026 · This site is operated by the Linux Kernel Organization, a 501 (c)3 nonprofit corporation, with support from the following sponsors.

Dec 3, 2025 · Unless you downloaded, compiled and installed your own version of kernel from kernel.org, you are running a distribution kernel. To find out the version of your kernel, run uname -r:

Aug 6, 2024 · If you're new to Linux, you don't want to download the kernel, which is just a component in a working Linux system. Instead, you want what is called a distribution of Linux, which is a complete …

The following manuals are written for users of the kernel — those who are trying to get it to work optimally on a given system and application developers seeking information on the kernel’s user …

Documentation extracted from the Linux kernel and mirrored on the web where Google can find it:

The maintainers of the various kernel subsystems — and also many kernel subsystem developers — expose their current state of development in source repositories.

This is the beginning of a section with information of interest to application developers and system integrators doing analysis of the Linux kernel for safety critical applications.

Aug 6, 2024 · Kernel.org accounts are usually reserved for subsystem maintainers or high-profile developers. It is absolutely not necessary to have an account on kernel.org to contribute to the …

There are a great many reasons why kernel code should be merged into the official (“mainline”) kernel, including automatic availability to users, community support in many forms, and the ability to …

The kernel code base is logically broken down into a set of subsystems: networking, specific architecture support, memory management, video devices, etc. Most subsystems have a designated maintainer, …