Sponsored Content
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.
 

5 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting

1. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

open source antivirus

Hello What is the best open source anti virus? Thanks (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: mohammadmahdi
4 Replies

2. Shell Programming and Scripting

Open Source

Hi Friends I'm new to this UNIX - I'm working on the porting project from Solaris To Linux i just want to map some commands from solaris to Linux so can any one please tell me how to get the source code of the commands like "ls", "cu", "du" Regards sabee (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: sabee.prakash
1 Replies

3. UNIX and Linux Applications

need open source KB software for UNIX

Anyone know of a good open source Knowledge Base software for UNIX that can connect to an Oracle back end? (0 Replies)
Discussion started by: RJ45
0 Replies

4. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Open-source projects to learn concurrency-managed network programming in Unix?

Hi, I am a mid-career programmer with extensive experience in object-oriented design and development in C, C++, and C#. I've written a number of multi-threaded server applications and background services, although my grasp of networking protocols is a bit weak: my current job drifted away from... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: TheTaoOfPhil
2 Replies

5. UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users

UNIX/Linux inventory - Open Source

Hello guys, I need an open source tool that can list all the softwares installed in my unix/linux servers, the tool should list all the softwares installed and the current version, grouped by the hostname, anybody know any solution for this specific problem? Thanks guys, have a good day! (7 Replies)
Discussion started by: denisloide
7 Replies
LINUX-VERSION(1)					      General Commands Manual						  LINUX-VERSION(1)

NAME
linux-version - operate on Linux kernel version strings SYNOPSIS
linux-version compare VERSION1 OP VERSION2 linux-version sort [--reverse] [VERSION1 VERSION2 ...] linux-version list [--paths] DESCRIPTION
linux-version operates on Linux kernel version strings as reported by uname -r and used in file and directory names. These version strings do not follow the same rules as Debian package version strings and should not be compared as such or as arbitrary strings. compare VERSION1 OP VERSION2 Compare version strings, where OP is a binary operator. linux-version returns success (zero result) if the specified condition is satisfied, and failure (nonzero result) otherwise. The valid operators are: lt le eq ne ge gt sort [--reverse] [VERSION1 VERSION2 ...] Sort the given version strings and print them in order from lowest to highest. If the --reverse option is used, print them in order from highest to lowest. If no version strings are given as arguments, the version strings will instead be read from standard input, one per line. They may be suffixed by arbitrary text after a space, which will be included in the output. This means that, for example: linux-version list --paths | linux-version sort --reverse will list the installed versions and corresponding paths in order from highest to lowest version. list [--paths] List kernel versions installed in the customary location. If the --paths option, show the corresponding path for each version. AUTHOR
linux-version and this manual page were written by Ben Hutchings as part of the Debian linux-base package. 30 March 2011 LINUX-VERSION(1)
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 05:56 PM.
Unix & Linux Forums Content Copyright 1993-2022. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy