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Full Discussion: Is UNIX an open source OS ?
Operating Systems Linux Fedora Is UNIX an open source OS ? Post 302910075 by sreyan32 on Tuesday 22nd of July 2014 09:36:54 AM
Old 07-22-2014
Is UNIX an open source OS ?

Hi everyone,
I know the following questions are noobish questions but I am asking them because I am confused about the basics of history behind UNIX and LINUX.

Ok onto business, my questions are-:

  1. Was/Is UNIX ever an open source operating system ?
  2. If UNIX was closed source (as Wikipedia states as "historically closed source") then is LINUX a reverse engineered version of UNIX ?
    I mean if UNIX was closed source how did Linus Torvalds create a "UNIX-like" OS called LINUX without having access to the source code of a closed source OS. The only possible explanation seems reverse engineering UNIX just like ReactOS is a reversed engineered binary compatible version of Windows.
  3. Now this seems a little odd to ask. Is LINUX actually an OS ? Or is Linux just a kernel ? I am asking this because the Debian OS which I use can work on Linux, FreeBSD and I think the GNU Hurd kernel (I have no idea what it is by the way). Wikipedia defines Linux as an OS while I have never used an OS called Linux but I have used distros like "Fedora", "Debian", etc.

Okay that's about it for now. Please don't flame me, I am really confused between the basics here.

Thanks in advance.
 

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JIGDO-LITE(1)															     JIGDO-LITE(1)

NAME
jigdo-lite - Download jigdo files using wget SYNOPSIS
jigdo-lite [ URL ] DESCRIPTION
See jigdo-file(1) for an introduction to Jigsaw Download. Given the URL of a `.jigdo' file, jigdo-lite downloads the large file (e.g. a CD image) that has been made available through that URL. wget(1) is used to download the necessary pieces of administrative data (contained in the `.jigdo' file and a corresponding `.template' file) as well as the many pieces that the large file is made from. The jigdo-file(1) utility is used to reconstruct the large file from the pieces. `.jigdo' files that contain references to Debian mirrors are treated specially: When such a file is recognized, you are asked to select one mirror out of a list of all Debian mirrors. If URL is not given on the command line, the script prompts for a location to download the `.jigdo' file from. The following command line options are recognized: -h --help Output short summary of command syntax. -v --version Output version number. --scan FILES Do not ask for "Files to scan", use this path. --noask Do not ask any questions, instead behave as if the user had pressed Return at all prompts. This can be useful when running jigdo- lite from cron jobs or in other non-interactive environments. SEE ALSO
jigdo-file(1), jigdo-mirror(1), wget(1) (or `info wget') CD images for Debian Linux can be downloaded with jigdo <URL:http://www.debian.org/CD/jigdo-cd/>. AUTHOR
Jigsaw Download <URL:http://atterer.net/jigdo/> was written by Richard Atterer <jigdo atterer.net>, to make downloading of CD ROM images for the Debian Linux distribution more convenient. 19 May 2006 JIGDO-LITE(1)
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