Linux is a clone of Unix written from scratch by Linus Torvald and a team of other developers. Technically, Linux is a kernel, an essential component of a complete operating system. There are a number of distributions available on the Internet or from vendors who assemble their own distributions of the operating system. The largest commercial vendor of Linux distributions is Red Hat.

Like Unix, Linux is ideally suited for the server environment. Red Hat's commercial interests and marketing efforts have successfully increased Linux's popularity across the web, and many server vendors ship their systems with a Red Hat distribution of Linux.

At Spry, we use a specialized Linux hosting and have made Virtual Private Servers like no other company. On a system level, our developers used the amazing stability of the Linux architecture to develop our industry-leading virtual servers that give each user their own dedicated operating system. This enables us to offer VPS root access hosting at prices well below the typical cost of a dedicated server.

If you have used FreeBSD or another Unix-like operating system like you can adapt very quickly to Linux. Or, if Linux is your first exposure to Unix-like operating systems, you'll find a wide variety of documents in our Knowledge Base and on the web to get you started.