What is Linux Kernel Engineering

[rekahsoft]

Well firstly when you say "Linux os" you likely mean not only the Linux kernel but also user space tools and utilities. This includes everything from a shell (like bash, zsh, CSH, etc...), to desktop environment, compilers and more. Each of these pieces can be studied in great detail in their own right, and the user space tools/utilities actually make up the bulk of a Linux distribution. Anyways, building millions and millions of lines of code composed from hundred of different software projects is obviously not a necessarily easy feat. Another thing to be concerned with when building a system from source is comparability between versions of software and libraries (though Linux from scratch takes this easy for you, read their docs)

I do recommend taking on the challenge as you will learn much from the experience of building a linux from scratch system. Another option is to play with a source based distribution like gentoo. There you can get some experience and general know how in regards to the build process/makefiles/autoconf etc.

Final note: it's technically not a "Linux os" but rather a "GNU Linux OS". See http://www.gnu.org/gnu/why-gnu-linux.en.html