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Netmar User's
Guide: Unix OS Basics
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UNIX was developed by Bell Labs in the 1960's to be a multi-platform (meaning that it is able to run on different processors), multi-user operating system. Naturally it has caught on as the server of choice for the majority of the world. It's flexibility, reliability, and universal application have made it one of the most popular, longest used operating systems in existence. Technically, UNIX is a trademark of the Open Group. The word "UNIX" has become almost generic to describe a number of "UNIX-like" operating systems, such as HP-UX, AIX, Solaris, BSD, and more. UNIX is also closed-source, like Windows, meaning that users don't have access to the source code. Linux (usually pronounced LIH-nucks) came around in the 1990's as the brainchild of Finnish college student Linus Torvalds. Linus developed a basic operating system that looked, felt, and operated very much like UNIX, but was built from the ground up since he didn't have the source code. Next, Linus did something unusual: He released his source code to the world, for free, for computer gurus everywhere to poke, prod, and rewrite. This code contains everything to create the Linux operating system from scratch. The license that the code was released under eventually evolved into the GNU Public License (GPL). The GPL says, in effect, that you can use the code, modify it, re-release it, but that you can't copyright it or claim it as your own material, and you can't sell it as original material. Since the release of Linux to the world, many groups of people have become interested in it. There are many Linux "distributions" - each offering a unique mix of programs suited to a particular task. Some well-known Linux distributions include RedHat, SuSE, Debian, and Slackware, though there are many, many more. UNIX
File System organization UNIX
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