UNIX, Linux and the Key Differences
What is Unix?

All Unix, Linux and other Unix-like operating systems are families of computer operating systems derived from the original Unix System from Bell Telephone Laboratories. Today, the largest Unix descendent directly certified as "UNIX" is macOS by Apple. The original commercial Unix derivatives included HP-UX, AIX and SunOS, to name a few. The diversity and perceived incompatibility between various Unix systems led to the creation of interoperability standards including the Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX).
Unix is the original and most powerful and popular multi-user and multi-tasking Operating System. The basic concepts of Unix were originated in the Multics project of 1969. The Multics system was intended as a time-sharing system that would allow multiple users to simultaneously access a mainframe computer. Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and others developed the basic building blocks of Unix including a hierarchical file system and a command line interpreter for the PDP-7. Multiple generations of Unix systems were developed for myriad computers.
As mentioned, historical perceived incompatibility between the various early Unix systems led to the creation of POSIX and the Single Unix Specification. Historically, the rigid "standardization" approach led to the creation of various open source approaches to Unix including the Free Software Foundation (FSF), GNU and Linux. Unix programs were originally created around core design philosophies that included requirements like single purpose, interoperable, and working with a simple standardized text interface. Unix systems are built around a core kernel that manages the system and the other processes. Kernel subsystems may include process management, file management, memory management, network management and others.
Key Features:
  1. Unix is a multi-user system where the resources can be shared by various system users.
  2. Unix provides multi-tasking. Users can execute many processes at the same time (practically speaking).
  3. Unix was the first computer operating system that was written in a high-level language (C Language).
  4. Unix provides a hierarchical file structure which facilitated fast data access.
  5. Unix has built-in networking functions so that computers can easily exchange information.
  6. Unix functionality can be extended through user programs built on a standard programming interface.
  7. UNIX certifies compliance with a full set of interoperability standard, managed and maintained by the Open Group, which includes, not only the kernel, but the entire operating system.
What is Linux?

Linux is a Unix-like operating system created by Linus Torvalds at the University of Helsinki in 1991. The name Linux refers to the Linux kernel, the software on a computer which permits applications and users to access the devices on the computer to perform specific functions. The development of Linux was a landmark example of global, free and open source software collaboration. Many companies and similar numbers of individuals have released their own version of Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux Kernel.
Similar to Unix kernels, the Linux kernel relays instructions from an application from the computer's processor and sends the results back to the application.
Broader in scope than commercial Unix products, Linux has been installed on a variety of platforms including mobile phones, tablets, video game consoles, NAS storage arrays, routers and small embedded controllers.
Currently the world's largest and most powerful data centers and scientific research centers use some "flavor" of Linux.
The development of Linux is a stellar example of the power of free and open source software development and global human collaboration.
A Linux "distribution" is a release of a Unix-like operating system based on the specifications of the Linux kernel.
Key Features:
  1. Linux, like Unix, is a multi-user system where the resources can be shared by various system users.
  2. Linux, like Unix, provides multi-tasking. Users can execute many processes at the same time (practically speaking).
  3. Linux, like Unix, was written in C.
  4. Linux, like Unix, provides a hierarchical file structure which facilitated fast data access.
  5. Linux, like Unix, has built-in networking functions so that computers can easily exchange information.
  6. Linux, unlike UNIX, specifies only the kernel but not the entire operating system.
Login or Register to Ask a Question

Forever Free UNIX and Linux Technical Support - View Today's Discussions

HELLO WORLD
Status All Forums Threads Posts
Toggle Forum Collapse Top Forums
Learn UNIX, UNIX commands, Linux, Operating Systems, System Administration, Programming, Shell, Shell Scripts, Solaris, Linux, HP-UX, AIX, OS X, BSD.
2,768 15,306
72,071 389,896
8,900 37,304
Sub-Forums: Open Source
6,731 29,807
610 2,448
29,883 131,950
Toggle Forum Collapse Operating Systems
Learn Solaris, HP-UX, AIX, OS X, BSD, Linux and more operating system commands, system administration, and more!
11,968 56,894
7,940 31,045
AIX
6,001 25,487
2,483 10,451
SCO
953 4,113
590 2,459
BSD
347 1,156
Toggle Forum Collapse Homework and Emergencies
Homework and emergency / urgent technical support requests. Special forum rules apply when posting homework.
788 3,385
363 2,678
Toggle Forum Collapse Special Forums
Read the latest UNIX and Linux news, discuss special topics like disks, file systems web servers, network security, applications and more.
1,274 3,757
662 2,365
1,761 6,178
1,015 3,537
591 2,197
659 2,680
219 517
Toggle Forum Collapse The Lounge
Discuss just about any off topic you like, view the Members Only area, browse the job board and more.
1,243 8,439
31 226
Toggle Forum Collapse UNIX Standards and Benchmarks
Learn about UNIX standards and find UNIX and Linux benchmark software here.
69 167
1 1
Toggle Forum Collapse Contact Us
Contact the administrators and moderators of The UNIX and Linux Forums here.
729 2,973
253 617
.
Please Contact Us in the "Contact Us" Forums if You Have Any Questions or Comments.
An Interest Fact about the History of Unix and Linux
sed (stream editor)

sed (stream editor) is a Unix utility that parses and transforms text using a simple and compact programming language. sed was developed from 1973 to 1974 by Lee E. McMahon of Bell Labs and is available today for most Unix-like operating systems. sed was based on the scripting features of the interactive editor ed ("editor", 1971) and the earlier qed ("quick editor", 1965–66). sed was one of the first Unix tools to support regular expressions and remains in use for text processing, most notably with the substitution command. Popular alternative tools for plaintext string manipulation and "stream editing" include AWK and Perl.
sed first appeared in Version 7 Unix and is one of the original Unix commands built for command line processing of data files. sed evolved as the natural successor to grep. The original motivation for sed was an analogue of grep (g/re/p) for substitution, hence "g/re/s". Realizing that additional special-purpose programs for each command would also arise, such as g/re/d, McMahon wrote a sed as a general-purpose line-oriented stream editor. The syntax for sed, notably the use of / for pattern matching, and s/// for substitution, originated with ed, the precursor to sed. The regular expression syntax from ed and sed influenced other languages, notably ECMAScript and Perl. Later, the more powerful programming language AWK was developed allowing powerful text processing to be done by shell scripts. sed and AWK are often cited as the ancestors and inspiration for Perl. sed and AWK influenced Perl's syntax and semantics, especially in the matching and substitution operators.
Please enjoy and help our forum community by "showing your work" and posting your code, even when your code is not working as expected. To help others help you, please wrap your code blocks, sample input, sample output, error messages, and other data in CODE tags and wrap your short commands and short data objects in ICODE tags. We were all beginners in the beginning. If you have any questions about how to register or how to post, please contact us in our forum for unregistered users.. Thank you and enjoy this "forever free" technical support community for UNIX, Linux and computer information technology in general.
Login or Register to Ask a Question
What's Up? @ 1710837866 UNIX Time
Active Users Currently Active Users: 5625
Most users ever online was 10,359, 10-11-2023 at 11:32 AM.
Login for Details of Members Online Now
Stats UNIX and Linux Forums by the Numbers
Threads: 237,827, Posts: 883,893 , Unix & Linux Forum Members: 138,394
Login for Details of Active Members