UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

hi, I'm a new user and in order to be frank, I have to say that I don't know much about unix nor linux, I know that unix is older, it's in plain text and etc., but do you think that learning unix and then linux would have a great advantage for me, or I can jump on linux from the begining? If your answer is unix, then do you know any site that I can download that from? thanks and bye...

There is virtually no difference between the two. Sure there are some differences in how filesystems are laid out and other differences to be sure as well. UNIX typically is used in a business setting since most major vendors use UNIX as a basis for their proprietary version.

Linux on the other hand is used for increasingly for business, but is mostly used from PCs or workstations. Linux is a very good product and is becoming more popular because of its many versions, free code from many sites, ease of use and your ability to modify the code for you own purposes, business or personal...

If you were going to learn one on your own, there are many versions to pick from. If you searched this site, you would find many personal preferences.

Here are some helpful links.

https://www.unix.com/showthread.php?s...light=download

https://www.unix.com/showthread.php?s...light=download

https://www.unix.com/showthread.php?s...download+linux

https://www.unix.com/where-do-i-download-linux-and-unix-/

https://www.unix.com/showthread.php?s...download+linux

Linux is UNIX, but with a few advanced options. Linux is what is known as a flavour of UNIX, but the two are pretty synonymous. If you say Linux, ppl will respond saying UNIX and vice-versa. Linux was just partially developed by a different person (Linus Torvalds, hence Linus' UNIX=Linux)

hi, thanx for your replies, I read them all and found them useful, I think I have to forget about both of them for a while coz just tonight I burnt my 256 MG RAM and I have to replace that! at least linux didn't have a good start for me (: , I also read CornNuts question saying if it's any program that allows you have both unix and windows on one computer, I also went to that Cygwin site, but I think it just allows you to shift your OS, going from windows to linux or sth like that, I mean just a simulation, I still have to make a new partition on my hard drive if I want to install linux, right?

Yes you need a non-Dos partition on an Windows based system.

When I purchased Linux-Mandrake at the local bookstore, it came with a Linux Partition magic tool to create a linux partition. it was very easy to setup with only 1 reboot to apply. Then install the Linux OS.


BTW, How did you fry the memory? At least it is cheeep now!

well, I don't know myself why it happend! but I just fried that, anyway, I think I'm so dumb, today I made 2 extra partitions on my hard drive with Partition Majic, one in Ex2 format and one in SWP ( swap ) format, then I tried to install Red Hat 7.2, it didn't give me any error, but when it got finished and I tried to run it for the first time, it just seemed that it hanged, coz I had that blue page in the start up asking me whether I want Red Hat or Dos, but when I chose Red Hat, there were lots of codes marching on the screen and then the whole system was hanged and I couldn't do anything, my friends tell me that it shouldn't be such hard, I think I have to go to them, anyway, I'm just so stupid!

Hmm... It shouldn't take too long to start up...
That "blue screen" you saw was Grub, the bootloader. That's good so far... At least it found the OS.
What was the last line that you saw before it hung?

I use Redhat 7.2 on a few machines at home, so I'm generally familiar with the common start-up scripts.

And don't feel stupid! It's a new, unfamiliar system! It's good that you devoted some time to it, just give yourself a little more. Very few first-time users of Linux jump right in and have everything perfectly set up to the way you want it.

Post back, and let us know what's going on...