this is my very first post in unix.com.
hello every one,
I am a real Newbie and I wanna know ..
1) from where to download unix os ?
2) are ther any distros like linux in unix?
Please notice that "Unix" is not an operating system - not in the sense of "Windows is an OS" or "Palm OS is an OS". Its an architecture, a design blueprint for building actual OSes. "Unix" specifies that there have to be certain features, certain interfaces, certain ways things work, etc.. In a narrower sense "Unix" describes the way the OS kernel works.
Depending on what you want to learn you will probably not be affected by the difference between "Linux" and "Unix", because (you said you are a beginner) the two work identically viewed from the outside. The differences are rather esoteric points in the kernel design, which will most likely not affect you at all.
Using different Unix flavours is a lot like driving different car models: yes, its different somehow, but basically a steering wheel is a steering wheel, a brake is a brake, the gear shift is similar to the gear shift in the other model, etc..
Many Unix dialects are not free at all and will either only run on very specific hardware (like AIX, which only runs on IBMs p-Series) and/or cost money.
The bottom line is: download a Linux distribution of your liking and as long as you don't have to learn some very very specific details about OS architecture you could use the terms "Unix" and "Linux" interchangeably, because any Unix will more or less work like Linux and vice versa.
You might be interested in reading the Rosetta Stone of Unix for some of the more obvious differences among the popular flavours of Unix.
I hope this helps.
bakunin
thanks but it seems too much strange to me that "UNIX IS NOT AN OS" !!
what found in my favor was ...
Unix - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The UNIX Operating System: White Paper
what you say ?
What bakunin is trying to explain is that OS like DOS are understood as an OS where all know on what/how it runs, same goes for Windows... UNIX, since you talk about flavors cannot be compared in the same way: you have many flavors for many architectures.
You can write books (real big ones too...) on UNIX evolution and history...
And for now you have no more one UNIX but SVR4 family and BSD family and UNIX clones (linux...) Which one are you interested in?
Here is the unix genealogy (well almost...)
The Unix family tree - Computerworld
1 Like
Modern UNIX(not historical UNIX) is to operating systems what aviation standards are to airplanes; an OS needs a certain minimum set of features and tools to be UNIX-compliant. So this documentation describes how UNIX-compliant systems should be built, not an actual system that is built.
There are lots of OSes that try to be UNIX-compliant, with varying degrees of success. Some of the most traditional are ones like the various BSD's(modern descendants of one of the ancient, original implementations) and Solaris. Linux is not UNIX-compliant in name(for copyright reasons that may no longer be relevant) but it's strongly compatible with it nonetheless.
There are MANY Linux clones and choosing one that fits you best is a process. Try something like Linux Jazz and choose the version/clone that fits your needs. All of today's distros are easy to install, (with exception of Slackware that requires more knowledge). Good luck.
@all :
thanks alot. I have been using Linux (openSUSE 11.1 and .2 + fedora 12 )for last 1.5 years but just one simple doubt is there perhaps VBE tried t male me clear the same as follows but still i am not getting :
is unix is the same what DOS means to windows ???
and second ..
From the Wikipedia page on UNIX (the one you've already linked to)
And if you read the history of UNIX on the same page, you'll learn that the original AT&T UNIX hasn't seen any further development, but instead the brand UNIX is now managed and defined by the Open Group, and more specifically the Single Unix Specification (SuS). Any Operating System that is certified as SuS-compatible may call itself UNIX.
thanks to all.
so can we say that "the terminal program in Linux (unix ) is the same what command prompt program ("dos") means to windows ???"
So can we say that the utility named Terminal, bundled with almost all distributions, is actually nothing but Unix??
---------- Post updated at 04:17 PM ---------- Previous update was at 04:02 PM ----------
thanks to all.
so can we say that "the terminal program in Linux (unix ) is the same what command prompt program ("dos") means to windows ???"
So can we say that the Terminal utility bundled with almost all distros is actually nothing but Unix??
---------- Post updated at 04:18 PM ---------- Previous update was at 04:17 PM ----------
and and.... can we say that these openBSD,freeBSD, netBSD,PC-BSD are all UNIX OSes ???
No. The only thing DOS, Windows (NT, newer than 98), and Unices (plural of UNIX) have in common is that they're an OS. The "terminal" can be the same program across different Unices. It's just a program that communicates between a user and another program, nothing more, nothing less. And a single program can't be UNIX, as that term includes not only programs, but also APIs, filesystem layouts, ...
Again, read up on the history of UNIX in that Wikipedia article you've linked.
Yes, the *BSDs are Unices. So is Solaris, HP-UX, AIX, Tru64, and Linux, as they all support a certain set of common APIs, programs, ...
aarsh... simply download one of the Linux flavour Fedora core from the web fedoraproject see below link
http://fedoraproject.org/get-fedora
and install it with someones help. After installing Fedora core you can use UNIX from the Fedora OS by terminal or console.
you can't use UNIX because UNIX is not a tool or program... all you can use from within a terminal session are the tools (programs) that are installed on the system. tools like "vi" or shell buildin commands for scripts like "while".
Terminals and GUI's are both just programs -- linux makes no special distinction between them, a GUI program is just an ordinary program that happens to be talking with an X server... Everything you see and interact with is just programs running inside the OS, the OS is kind of intangible to the user.
What Linux fundamentally is, is a kernel. That is -- a small program, about a meg or so in size that the system boots raw from disk. It handles all devices and loads programs, runs programs, switches between programs, lets programs talk to each other, and deals with files when programs tell it to. That is it, there's no shell or GUI built in. Everything like that in a Linux distro are programs that just run inside Linux.
IOW it's a completely barebones "utility" to run programs inside. It runs one and only one program automatically, on boot: init. Think of it like autoexec.bat, except it's optional for DOS to have an autoexec.bat but mandatory for Linux to have an init; without an autoexec.bat, DOS just drops to a command prompt, but init would actually be the command prompt(or at least be responsible for creating one), and if there's nothing there then what? It's also very different from DOS in that it's multitasking, of course.
So, UNIX describes a broad design for two things:
- The kernel(aka operating system)
- The standard set of programs that come with the kernel
This is very different from Windows where it's all treated like one inseperable block.