Q 01/05

Tux, the Linux mascot, is which kind of animal, chosen after Linus Torvalds said one bit him in Canberra?

A) Penguin

B) Kangaroo

C) Wombat

D) Platypus

Answer · why

A) Penguin

A penguin was announced as the mascot in 1996. The name Tux nods both to Torvalds' UniX and to the tuxedo the bird appears to wear.

Q 02/05

Which smartphone operating system is based on a modified Linux kernel but ships without the usual GNU software?

A) iOS

B) Symbian

C) Android

D) Windows Phone

Answer · why

C) Android

Android pairs the Linux kernel with Google's own userland, including a C library called Bionic, instead of the GNU one.

Q 03/05

In which Nordic country was Linus Torvalds a university student when he began writing the Linux kernel?

A) Sweden

B) Finland

C) Norway

D) Denmark

Answer · why

B) Finland

Finland has a Swedish-speaking minority that includes the Torvalds family, which makes Sweden the usual wrong guess. He attended the University of Hel...

Q 04/05

In November 2017, Linux became the only operating system left on the TOP500, a twice-yearly ranking of which machines?

A) Web servers

B) Mainframes

C) Cloud data centres

D) Supercomputers

Answer · why

D) Supercomputers

Supercomputers on the list have all run Linux since the last two holdouts, IBM machines running AIX, dropped off that month.

Q 05/05

Which NASA helicopter, the first aircraft to make a powered flight on another planet, ran a Linux operating system?

A) Pathfinder

B) Dragonfly

C) Ingenuity

D) Helios

Answer · why

C) Ingenuity

Ingenuity ran Linux on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor. Planned for only five flights on Mars, it completed 72.