Linux is generally referred to any of the clones of the famous UNIX operating system. An operating system is a piece of software which enables a computer to work. The correct term is Linux/GNU, which are two different things, but both together make a working operating system.
Linux was written by an intelligent fellow named Linus Torvald as a clone to UNIX, in 1980s. But Linux alone was only the core part of the complete operating system. Core of any operating system which enables various components of a computer to talk to each other is known as its kernel. But it alone is not enough for humans to interact with the computer and do something useful. That part existed in the form of GNU thanks to another guru named Richard Stallman. When both the gurus found each other, they combined their efforts in the form of Linux/GNU, and this gave birth to a new era in the field of computers.
Linux/GNU has evolved thanks to the efforts of thousands of open source technology enthusiasts around the globe. Linux kernel is primarily maintained by Linus Torvald and its releases and patches can be found at www.kernel.org. For complete Linux based operating systems, there exist many distros, most famous of which seems to be Ubuntu. Other famous ones are Fedora, RedHat, Debian, SuSe and CentOS.
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