Operating systems and Linux distributions: Difference between revisions

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux GNU Linux] aims to be a free and open-source unix (or unix-like) operating system that will run on most types of computer hardware and uses an [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Window_System X11 graphical user interface]. Various [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_distribution distributions of GNU/Linux] exist that have different package management systems and other features. Most of these are ideal platforms for X-ray crystallography and other scientific computational requirements.