Confused Newbie
 

What is this Linux and why does it appear when I google my cell phone number?

Linux is an operating system for desktop and laptop PCs. It can run on anything that runs Windows. It does much the same things as Windows does, only better. And it's free! Free as in "free speech" and quite often free as in "free beer" too.

You can learn a lot about it in this forum.

I have no idea why it came up when you googled your number. Give us a bit more information and perhaps someone can tell you.

Hi Angela,

Welcome to LQ! Linux is the operating system that runs 70% of Internet-connected devices. Google Android is Linux. Amazon Kindle is Linux. Linux is the computer operating system for the New Millennium!

It's flexible, powerful, diverse, inclusive, with over 400,000 software programs available, all for free! Cray Research supercomputers run Linux. IBM zeOS mainframes run Linux. Networking routers run Linux! PCs run Linux! Yes, even an Apple Mac ppc can run Linux. Many smart phones run Linux.

Linux is the most popular operating system of all time!

Its an open source monolithic kernel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernel_(operating_system)

Linux + GNU Software (which Android sadly lacks) leads to Linux Distributions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_distribution

Hi Angela, welcome to the forum :)

A couple of more basic articles of what Linux is can be found here and here. As to what you are seeing on your cell phone, we would need more details. :)

However, I would add that Linux is not as compatible with certain types of hardware (compared to Windows) due to a either a lack of drivers or ones that offer limited functionality as opposed to their Windows counterparts. ;)

Regards...

And, just to be fair, Windows is not compatible with some hardware that runs Linux naturally, well, and quickly.