What is UNIX and Linux?
What is UNIX?
UNIX is a computer Operating System. The Operating System is the software that makes your computer run. An example of another Operating System is Microsoft Windows.
Under UNIX, the Operating System consists of many programs along with the master control program, the kernel. The kernel provides services to start and stop programs, handles the file system, etc.
Brief History of UNIX
The first version of UNIX was created in 1969 by a computer scientist at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Kenneth Thompson within one month of coding when his wife was away on vacation. The operating system had four parts: the kernel, the shell, the editor, and the assembler. He allocated one week to each part and the code was in Assembly language.
The original name was UNICS which stands for UNiplexed Information and Computing Services. UNICS was later renamed to UNIX (UNIX is not an acronym).
Due to some limitations in assembly language, hard and not portable, another computer scientist at Bell Labs, Dennis Richie, created a new programming language called C to better continue improving UNIX.
AT&T experienced an antitrust case back in 1958 and was forbidden from entering the computer business. For this reason, they could not turn UNIX into a product and under the antitrust terms, AT&T was required to license its non-telephone technology to anyone who asked. Early in its development, word of the UNIX operating system and its advantages already spread outside of Bell Labs. UNIX was attractive to other organizations and universities for a few reasons [3]:
- It was the only powerful interactive system that could run on the sort of hardware that universities could afford in the mid ’70s.
- It was written in an attractive language, C.
When UNIX got into the hands of many teachers and students and individuals around the world, it got further improved and became popular since.
Images:
The computer the first UNIX version was created in, model: DEC PDP-7
Manufacturer: Digital Equipment Corporation
Year: 1965
Price: $72,000 USD
Power: less than a typical cellphone of today
What is Linux?
Linux is a UNIX clone. It was created at the University of Helsinki in Finland by a student named Linus Torvalds in 1991.
The Linux operating system is developed under the GNU General Public License (also known as GNU GPL) and its source code is freely available to everyone.
Linus Torvalds
| Some UNIX Operating Systems: | Some Linux Operating Systems: |
|---|---|
|
1. FreeBSD 2. NetBSD 3. OpenBSD |
1. Debian a. Ubuntu 2. Redhat a. Fedora b. CentOS 3. Slackware |
References:
- History and origin of UNIX
- History of Unix and Linux
- http://maven.smith.edu/~thiebaut/ArtOfAssembly/fwd/fwd.html
- Brief UNIX history — dcccd.edu
- History of Unix and causes for its popularity — odu.edu
- History of UNIX at Bell Labs — bell-labs.com
- List of all Linux distributions — wikipedia
- Comparison of Linux distributions — wikipedia
–end of article–
