salvage-this
Active Member
Not the way I understand it. Maybe someone else can explain it better than I can.
Can someone please explain Unix to me?
- Thread starter bmigga
- Start date
TrainTrackHack
VIP Member
Linux is technically not an OS, it's a kernel. On its own, it's useless - you, of course, also need utilities, libraries and applications to make a useful OS. When people talk about Linux as an OS, they mean an OS running on the Linux kernel - however, all the tools and programs a Linux distro comes with are developed independently from the kernel. This is one of the reasons why you have people referring to Linux as "GNU/Linux" - most of the basic system utilites and software are drawn from the GNU project, which (besides the fact that essentially every Linux distro comes with GNU software) bears no relation to Linux. You could well have a Linux OS running software that has nothing to do with the GNU project (and the other way around - a lot of GNU software is used on other systems as well) - the defining feature of a Linux OS is simply the kernel it runs on.
As for BSD being Unix or Linux, it is the former. Linux started off as a muckaround project in Finland. BSD is a derivative of Unix (from UC Berkley, as the name implies - "Berkley Software Distribution") that existed long before Linux. Unix used to be an actual OS, but the "original Unix" no longer exists. These days, Unix refers to any system that's compatible with certain standards and specs. I don't know what exact standards, though - Linux is POSIX compliant (essentially defines how most of any Unix system should work), yet it's not considered a true Unix but rather "Unix-like".
Okay, so when people refer to using Linux as an OS, they're really referring to Ubuntu, Red Hat, Fedora, etc? Which are all BASED on the Linux kernel?
And when people refer to Unix, it's kind of the same thing as Linux. Except none of the BSD or the Solaris are ACTUAL Unix based? Its More so Unix like?
And Unix is mostly used on Servers? I've heard of tons of people using Linux as OS's, but never herd of using Unix-like OS's on personal computers. What are the Unix OS's called that are used on Servers?
And just one more thing: the most common OS's are windows Mac Linux and unix. Correct? Which Mac and Linux are based on unix? Sorry for so many questions, I'm just trying to fully understand.
And when people refer to Unix, it's kind of the same thing as Linux. Except none of the BSD or the Solaris are ACTUAL Unix based? Its More so Unix like?
And Unix is mostly used on Servers? I've heard of tons of people using Linux as OS's, but never herd of using Unix-like OS's on personal computers. What are the Unix OS's called that are used on Servers?
And just one more thing: the most common OS's are windows Mac Linux and unix. Correct? Which Mac and Linux are based on unix? Sorry for so many questions, I'm just trying to fully understand.
TrainTrackHack
VIP Member
Correct.
Well, most of them are based off actual Unix - my second post here points to the Unix/Linux family tree, you can see that most modern Unix OSs have Unics (the Abraham of Unices if you will) as an ancestor; however, this ancestry doesn't necessarily tell anything about whether an OS should be considered true Unix or just Unix-like. Unix is simply a system that conforms to certain standards and specification; systems that don't quite conform to these standards but are very similar are called Unix-like.
Linux is Unix-like, but it's not Unix. But yes, Linux is far better supported and widely used on desktop than Unix (with the exception of Mac OS X which is also Unix), though both are still more widely used on servers.
More or less, though all of them are classes of operating systems rather than operating systems on their own. Mac is Unix, correct, but Linux only qualifies as Unix-like.
tlarkin
VIP Member
UNIX is the grandfather of all Operating Systems. Developed in the late 60s by AT&T, MIT and GE. Linux is a kernel, which is very similar yet it's own entity compared to UNIX.
The kernel is like the brains of an OS. It deals with all the transactions between software, data, abstraction layer, I/O, etc. The kernel communicates with the hardware of a computer and the software. In *nix based OSes, the shell wraps around the kernel, as a gatekeeper in a sense, and allows access to system level daemons, applications and binaries, and user interaction.
An Operating system consists of a Kernel, as well as many other components. Things like: frameworks, APIs, applications, libraries, user accounts, data, so on and so forth. A kernel is needed, but on it's own it isn't really an OS.
The kernel is like the brains of an OS. It deals with all the transactions between software, data, abstraction layer, I/O, etc. The kernel communicates with the hardware of a computer and the software. In *nix based OSes, the shell wraps around the kernel, as a gatekeeper in a sense, and allows access to system level daemons, applications and binaries, and user interaction.
An Operating system consists of a Kernel, as well as many other components. Things like: frameworks, APIs, applications, libraries, user accounts, data, so on and so forth. A kernel is needed, but on it's own it isn't really an OS.