I know Linux is an operating system but I see memes and posts about people arguing whether UNIX is an operating system or a kernel and stuff like that. So what separates the two? And what exactly is a kernel?
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UNIX is a generally family of operating systems that are built on the same assumptions, but not necessarily the same code.
This is things like Linux, BSD, OS X, etc. If something is programmed for one Unix system, you can probably compile it for another Unix system with minimal modifications. This is not the case for porting to a DOS system like Windows.
Linux is a specific class of Unix which is basically “Linus’s Unix”, it is a open source Unix system who’s development is lead by Linus Torvalds.
At the core of Linux, is the Kernel, this is the core of the OS. If it is built on the Kernel, it IS Linux, but the Kernel is basically the MINIMUM you can have an OS be, it does not include things people want like a desktop interface. So ontop of the Kernel people build linux Flavors that do include these. Most of which are built on GNU, a minimum usable os.
If a program is written for one flavor of GNU/Linux, it will probably run on another, but getting it to actually work might be tricky as many flavors of linux use different programs and file arrangements.
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