Main questions about ubuntu/linux!

[frido2]

Hey guys,
I am very new to the ubuntu system, so please forgive my stupid questins, and a big thanks in advance to all of you who take their time to answer my questins!
First off, is linux / ubuntu open source? ( open source doesn't equal free!!!)
2nd : is it possible to develop slightly changed versions of the system with different user interfaces for example, just like samsung does it with android?
3rd: what is the difference between linux and ubuntu?
4th: is there like any programming language or anything similiar Linux is written in and what is it called? would be good to know in relation to questin 2!
Thanks for your help!!!

[Bashing-om]

frido2; Hello ! Welcome to the forum .

I will attempt to address the questions/concerns; simply.

1) Yep, ubuntu is open source. In the standard default install all is "open source".
2) Yep, this is open source, and anyone has access to the source code and may modify it any way they choose and if they choose, share those changes. Modules -- swap in and out pretty much as you want . Scores of Desktop Environments ready made to choose from, thousands of applications freely available.
3)Yep. There are scores of distributions under the heading of 'linux' . ubuntu is but one of them . The common factor is the kernel that the distribution is built on.
4) Yep, and no .. pick your flavor ... the system is the kernel with "modules" loaded onto the kernel . Lots of supported languages and prologs. Use what suits you best for what you do.

that in a nut shell

is our world

[frido2]

thanks for the quick answer!
I have one more question:
related to my 4th question: If you would want to change the linux operating system, what languages would you need to know?

[Holger_Gehrke]

related to my 4th question: If you would want to change the linux operating system, what languages would you need to know?

The kernel is written in C with some highly architecture dependent pieces in assembly for various processors. Everything else is written in whatever the developers liked for the task at hand. There's C, C++, Objective C (Gnustep ...), Vala, Perl, Python, Java, Lisp (both Emacs and Common), Erlang, D ... and of course lots of (shell) scripts to tie the whole mess together.

[Bashing-om]

frido2; Well;

For starters:

thanks for the quick answer!
I have one more question:
related to my 4th question: If you would want to change the linux operating system, what languages would you need to know?

c, c++, python, pearl, and Qt .

The kernel has grown to millions of lines of code.

because millions do it