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Unix = Linux?
Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2007 10:17 pm
by potato
Hey,
i want to make a hosting-directory, and i'm categorizing all the different packages.
Now sometimes i see unix, sometimes linux.
I'm confused here, is it the same, or is there a difference between them?
It's gonna be a search option: windows, linux, ?unix?, ?maybe more?
somebody knows more about this?
greetings,
tom
Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2007 10:28 pm
by feyd
According to "official" sources, Linux is not Unix. Certified Unix that is. It derives from and owes a lot of heritage to Unix however. To most people, Linux is Unix. So I think your place is to base it on what your user-base will see it as.
Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2007 10:30 pm
by Kieran Huggins
Some people are picky about their hosting distro, so definitely keep that info so people can search/sort by it.
Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2007 10:33 pm
by potato
ok, thanx
Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 2:11 am
by Chris Corbyn
To most people, yes UNIX and Linux behave the same. But, when you get down to the nitty-gritty (at a kernel level), UNIX is most certainly not linux. Kernel modules made for Linux won't work under UNIX for example.
Re: Unix = Linux?
Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 3:57 am
by timvw
Start with looking up what the acronym linux means...
Linux Is Not UniX
Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 4:24 am
by Chris Corbyn
I so totally never clocked that one

I always just assumed it was a spin on the creator's name. Doh!
Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 5:09 am
by dude81
Unix is one of the starting operating systems designed by Ken thompson, Dennis Ritchie (Author of C-Language) during 60s-1970s, parallely developed with C, or infact C is developed on Unix or Unix is developed from C(vice versa). Today any OS which operates are based on Unix and a bit of innoviations on it. Unix has networking feature very early stages itself. Unix has much more features than Linux and is not open source.
Linux is a unix like operating system, but not Unix.
Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 6:55 am
by Chris Corbyn
Indeed... even DOS was stolen from an early UNIX.
Some reading about the history of linux:
http://liw.iki.fi/liw/texts/linux-the-big-picture.html
Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 7:00 am
by dude81
yup , I even heard that. mkdir command is one example. Same in both
Re: Unix = Linux?
Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 7:53 am
by Jenk
timvw wrote:Start with looking up what the acronym linux means...
Linux Is Not UniX
It was originally a play on the lead author's name.. Linus (Torvalds).
and if you ever want to solve the "How do you pronounce Linux?" argument:
here is the man himself.
Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 9:43 am
by Chris Corbyn
http://www.computerhope.com/history/unix.htm
This is interesting. In 1991, Linus Torvalds apparently posted to a minix newsgroup the following:
The man himself wrote:Hello everybody out there using minix -
I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones.
Famous last words

Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 12:29 pm
by Christopher
- Linux, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, AIX, HP-UX, IRIX, Solaris, UnixWare are Unix in the general use of the term.
- Only AIX, HP-UX, IRIX, Solaris, UnixWare are Registered Unix which means they have a license from the Open Group.
- OpenBSD and FreeBSD are not Registered Unix, but share common code from the original Unix.
- Linux is both not Registered Unix and does not share common code.
http://www.unix.org/what_is_unix/single ... ation.html
http://www.unix.org/what_is_unix/flavors_of_unix.html
