What's The Difference Between Linux And Unix?!?

liquidsparxx

Jan 9 2005, 09:59 AM

are they even made by the same people...?

maximumx

Jan 9 2005, 12:22 PM

actually.. if iam not wrong.. linux was made my linus trovaldos.. or something.. spelling is wrong

and unix.. dont know.. but they are from different people.
ut many similarities.. in the commands!!

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pixelsmack

Jan 9 2005, 01:55 PM

Linux is a kernal, unix is a type of OS. Unix is a registered name so Linux cannot be described as a Unix OS however you will here linux described as a Unix like system. One thing to bear in mind is that Linux is NOT an OS it is just the kernal the GNU (recursive acronym for GNU's Not Unix) is what people often confuse as being 'Linux' this is however the command line and tools that interact with the Linux Kernal.

A Linux OS is called a distrobution and will include both the Linux Kernal and The GNU tools as well.

Interesting Links:

http://www.kernel.org/

http://www.gnu.org/

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qwijibow

Jan 9 2005, 02:27 PM

Also, an interesting point to add. Unlike Unix, Linux isnt made by any company or single group of people.
Linus started the Linux Kernel, and ultimatly has the end say in what happens to Linux, however it is programmed by a global network of people who simply code for the fun of it. (Hackers)

so yes... Linux is just a kernel. A kernel is the first thing loaded when you boot, it controll's all hardware, and contains all of your drivers.

GNU is software, Like the C, C++, Assembly and other compilers, also libraries, and other base things that run on top of the kernel.

Then, there is software like X.org, the display server. X clients like KDE (one of the many available desktop environmetns for Linux)

Linux and Unix share many similarities... For example, KDE, the graphical user environment will compile and run on both Linux, and UNIX. so some Modules of Linux, can infact be the same as Unix.

What you guys Class FreeBSD / OpenBSD / NetBSD as ? they are more Unix like that Linux, but they dont class as Unix do they ?

As for Unix itself... i dont think unix *IS* an operating system anymore... more of a class of OS's like IBS's Unix and Sun's Solaris is also Unix right ?

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pixelsmack

Jan 9 2005, 03:06 PM

The BSD's again run a different kernal and have a very different structure of workings than Linux, however they can not be called UNIX as Unix is a tradename it cost huge sums of money to describe and OS as unix. Therefore for OSS projects this is just not feasable.

This is quite ironic since Unix itself was started as a project in the 60's at Berkley (is this MIT i don't know) with AT&T and was always supposed to be open. When unix became a tradename that project turned into BSD which means Bearkly Service Distrobution.

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kalyan

May 16 2006, 11:48 AM

well, here i would say something clear enough....

Unix was made by some company (dont remember) and it was not open...U wont get source..Latter Unix bought by SCO company.. even now they have..

Andrew Tenenbaum he was a professor and teaching Operating system and concepts but he was not able to give any examples.. So he develped his own OS called Minix.. It is open but not free

Richard Stallmen (father of open source) want to give a free Operating system.. So started GNU/Hurd project..
even he itself says writting a kernel code is hard and difficult to debug so he started spporting tools like emacs, gcc and many more..

That time Linux Torvalds was doing his college project.. he is good enough in assemply and little C that time ( i mean before having idea of Linux).. So slowly he wrote a file system and other things...

Both Minix and Linux taken the idea from Unix not the source... like everything will be handled like a file...

after realeasing the linux offcial version(1.o or latter dont remember) BSD OS came..
many ppl like it then linux they want to go to that... but they dont update ur patches like what linux does..

If u find really something needed for linux write your own patch submit to liunx. Linus will upgrade it and release in next version..
But this is not the case of BSD they dont accept patch so it was failed....

so latter Linus inself was not so much interested to get GPL License for his kernel but he put another condition no one should use Linux in any money related issues... so even the disk seller faced problems..
so finally linux incorporated GPL for Linux and it is called GNU/Linux...
The Richard Stallemn want to rename it like LIGNUX but no one likes it ... that is different story....
well i thing this is enough........

some interesting things are there i will tell u latter........ or in separe thread.....

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nightfox

May 17 2006, 10:27 PM

QUOTE(kalyan @ May 16 2006, 07:48 AM)

well, here i would say something clear enough....

Unix was made by some company (dont remember) and it was not open...

I think it was originally developed by AT&T (yes the phone company) and then at some point I think was sold to Novell and then Novell sold it to SCO.

And to this day, I don't think that UNIX is free but you can purchase the source code as well.

[N]F

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abhiram

May 18 2006, 10:52 AM

QUOTE

And to this day, I don't think that UNIX is free but you can purchase the source code as well.

I'm yet to see my first Unix operated comp. I've seen GNU/Linux, Solaris and BSD, but not a single system running plain old-fashioned Unix in my univ.

Great discussion going on here. Lots of things that I didn't know

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xboxrulz

May 19 2006, 02:33 AM

actually the Japanese Earthquake Centre uses Solaris to power their workstations. Solaris still uses the old UNIX standards, System-V. Not only does it support the old UNIX standards, but it also support the newer one, POSIX which Linux, BSD and other UNICES are all compatible with.

xboxrulz

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FeedBacker

Jan 1 2008, 06:53 AM

difference between unix and linux
What's The Difference Between Linux And Unix?!?

I want to know the basic and major difference between unix and linux in detail

-Devesh

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iGuest

May 17 2009, 07:49 AM

operating system questions
What's The Difference Between Linux And Unix?!?

1.On which lang os is came?

2.Which purpose os is introduced?

3.Who is the main author of os?

4.Why lunix and unix are introduced?

5.Difference between unix and lunix os?

give me answer these question it is kindly requested.

-question by g.Umadevi

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iGuest

Apr 25 2009, 01:51 AM

Tell me
What's The Difference Between Linux And Unix?!?

Linux and Unix operating system different in:

- Hard disk space requirement

- Availability of shells

- Distributions or variants

- Licensing

pla, tell me. I want to know!

Thank U...!

-reply by Norn

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iGuest

Apr 1 2009, 08:18 PM

The you should consider the BSD
What's The Difference Between Linux And Unix?!?

Your description of Unix is a little out date. OpenBSD, NETBSD, and FreeBSD are all Unix-like os that are not Linux. They are all free (ok, $50 if you want to buy the cd's instead of downloading them for free), does not use the Gnu License (which is a hindrance for Linux, whether they realize it or not, because under Gnu, industry can not contribute to the project without divulging proprietary info, which they will not do, so they alienate a whole sector of potential contributors), the BSD's all use proper software engineering techniques to make sure all the various components play nice with each other before being bundled together in a distro, which most Linux distro's do not do. They also are NOT tied to any proprietary hardware and will run on just about anything, including x86 based systems. Also, they run the same KDE windows system that you would find on a Linux box (re-engineered to get rid of the bugs, of course) so saying they have the same flavor as a '60's based operating system is not really accurate, since they use the same system... Here is an article you might find helpful:

http://www.over-yonder.net/~fullermd/rants/bsd4linux/bsd4linux1.php

-reply by CompSciNerd

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iGuest

Feb 20 2009, 07:11 AM

diff b/w unix & Linux
What's The Difference Between Linux And Unix?!?

Command-line-wise, Almost none, although this has been changing (for better or worse). Linux has a Much larger market appeal and following than any commercial UNIX. GUI-wise There are also no major differences--Linux, as most other UNIXes, uses an X-Windowing system.

The major differences:

Linux is free, while many UNICES (this is supposed to be the plural of UNIX), are very expensive. The same for applications--many good applications are available on Linux free. Even the same commercial application (if you wanted to buy one) typically costs much more for a commercial UNIX than for Linux.
Linux runs on many hardware platforms, the commodity Intel-x86/IBM-spec personal computers being the most prominent. In contrast, a typical UNIX is proprietary-hardware-bonded (and this hardware tends to be much more expensive than a typical PC clone).
With Linux, you are in charge of your computer, whereas on most UNICES you are typically confined to be an "l-user" (some administrators pronounce it "loser").
Linux feels very much like DOS/Win in the late 80s/90s, but is much sturdier and richer, while a typical UNIX account feels like a mainframe from the 60s/70s.
Some UNICES may be more mature in certain areas (for example, security, some engineering applications, better support of cutting-edge hardware). Linux is more for the average Joe who wants to run his own server or engineering workstation.

-reply by Poonam

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xboxrulz

Dec 2 2008, 01:47 AM

This question is basically answered and nothing useful has been posted. Everything is now redundant.

Topic closed.

xboxrulz

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