I feel stupid asking this but I am new to Linux. What exactly is a kernel and what does it do?

It's not a stupid question and in fact this doen not even put you in the inquisitive idiot category. (REFERENCE TO A BANNER AD AND BUMPER STICKER. THIS IS NOT A FLAME. I REPEAT THIS IS NOT A FLAME.)

At the risk of oversimplifying an extremely complex issue and being flamed by some kernel guru. - I'll take a shot. As I understand it the kernel is to linux as command.com is to DOS. That is, if DOS could manage permissions, control network deivices and protocols, manaage driver libraries, autoload modules, and so MUCH more.

Oh. and it's distributed under the GPL.

And Mr Torvalds is a very funny guy. I don't think I'd want to go for beers with Mr Gates. I could be wrong. I certainly would not want to hang out with Mr. Ballmer.

<ducking behind the modem...>

I always picture it as this, the kernel is the guy who does all the scenes in the background, communicating with all your hardware with the OS, making sure everything is in check and no one gets out of line. He passes the info from you to the hardware, like an translator.

Oh well, that is how I see Mr. Kernel and his job function.

I like TrickKid's explination. I'd advise you to think of command.com in DOS being akin to the Kernel (barely) and the Shell (bash, tcsh, sh, etc) though. I've heard it said about the kernel "protecting the user from the hardware and the hardware from the user".

Jamie...