Question:
install linux or unix?
NOMEGA
2012-11-21 09:15:03 UTC
i have never used any of them before. so i am gonna learn it. i heard they both are the same. so if i know linux, does it mean i also know unix or vice versa? i have an old computer, which is should i install? thanks
Five answers:
Mrlovelygame
2012-11-24 07:34:21 UTC
Unix vs Linux, Well Unix is still around but it is mostly extienct. Unix was oringinal all text based while Linux was text and gui while Unix users could have a gui they preferd text. Now Solarus was the last version of Unix. You see Unix has been around for so long that new Unix versions eventual became new Operating systoms because they had nothing that made them Unix. BSD was once a version of Unix but over time changes to it was made and it became it'st own OS. Now as of 2012 Unix is officlely dead. Now its children BSD, Minux, Linux, Darwin, Windows are the new focus.





In 1998 an younge Bill Gates was at a school vist at Bell Labs (place where Linux was made) and he saw what the OS could do. That is when he came up with the idea of making a cheap home OS and they created a early prototype built on Unix. The Unix clone faild and Microsoft then created MS DOS and the first Windows OS simply called Windows.



Now lets move on, Mac was created the same way as Windows, but Mac chnaged things but was still consider a child of Unix. The code is changed but was based off Unix. This code would be changed and become a new OS called Darwin when OSX came out.



In 1992 a student neamed Linus created a terminal for a OS based on a child of Unix called Minux. Linux would make his os free to use and open soucre under GPL (diffrent story) In the years to pass a new company named Google would create a Linux distro called Android and latter Linux would have a baby called Chrome OS.



So Linux is the best choice.
jplatt39
2012-11-21 09:26:21 UTC
Unix is just ever so slightly more complex. I'm talking about little things like you have to belong to the group wheel in order to run either su (supervising user) or sudo. With Linux if you have root's password you can be root -- or in Ubunut you don't even need that assuming you are in sudoers. Just type sudo su and when it's checked your password you will be root.



Also the name eth0 for ethernet varies depending on what sort of ethernet card you have. There is no eth0. That can make things confusing. If you can handle Debian or slackware it should be no problem but as a newbie I would recommend Linux Mint.
Rod
2012-11-22 02:22:30 UTC
Is there a unix available to install? Solaris? What else? I think that most unixes are proprietary and are bundled with hardware and beyond the reach of home users. AFAIK.

Linux or BSD are your options as far as freely available and free unix-like os' go.
icefyre
2012-11-21 09:22:28 UTC
Definitely Linux. UNIX is meant towards the enterprise and academic institution, not beginner friendly.

You can go to distrowatch.com to see all the available linux distribtions. I would start with a newbie friendly distibution like Ubuntu or Linux Mint. If your computer is really ancient (by that I mean it has a processor < 1Ghz and < 512 MB of RAM) I would try a lighter distribution like Puppy Linux (or one of the lighter ubuntu derivatives like Xubuntu)



Hope this helps!
Charlie Kelly
2012-11-21 19:14:29 UTC
There are plenty of differences, just not different in the ways that most people care.



I don't see much point in installing unix, go with any linux distro you like.


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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