title: What's the relationship between a Linux OS and a kernel?
body: <p>I've been using Linux for several years, but never stepped beyond installing from a CD/DVD. If the app manager didn't have what I was looking for in the software, then I was a lost cause.</p>
  
  <p>But right now I'm trying to get a grip around what "Linux" is.</p>
  
  <p>The first word that pops into my head is "kernel". After reading on Wikipedia, I understand that a kernel is software running to give other software (OS + apps) access to hardware (CPU, RAM+++). It also handles memory, but isn't that what the OS is supposed to do (what I remember from OS class)?</p>
  
  <p>Is the Linux distro just a packed list of software?</p>
  
  <p>Take my favorite distro: Fedora. It's now in version 14 and ships with kernel 2.6.35.</p>
  
  <p>Does the kernel come from somewhere central and is the core of <em>every</em> Linux distro? If this is true, then is the Linux distro just a way of making the computer with the kernel more user-friendly to use? In that way, the distro+kernel is the OS because the one without the other is not usable (maybe pure kernel, but who sits on that?).</p>