Is UNIX for me?


 
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# 1  
Old 08-15-2002
Is UNIX for me?

Unix has peaked my interest, but i'm so new to it that I don't even know what it is. I was hoping somebody could tell me a little about what it's used for.

Is it a powerful tool or a hobby?

Is it an equivalent to a Mac OS or Windows?

What would somebody do with it?

Sorry for the dumb questions, but I figure this is the right place to ask them. I wanted to dig in a little to see if it's something I could get into.

Thanks for your help.
Eric
# 2  
Old 08-15-2002
I've only been using it a few months, but here's what I've learned...

Unix is an operating system, doing many of the same things as Windows, such as mulitasking.

It's multi-user capable, allowing many people to use one computer running Unix at the same time without having to buy a ton of extra ram or the newest processor.

(At work we had many people at once working on a computer running Unix that had only a 266 MHz processor and it was still smooth and stable.)

However, it's command-line driven, meaning everything you want to do is done by typing on a command line, making it harder to grasp than windows where you just point-and-click to get things done.

As for it's uses, people use it for a lot of things, from running an entire website to storing information (such as databases) which multiple (even hundreds of) people can access at the same time. It has more options for security and tends to be a lot more stable than Windows (a friend had his go a year without rebooting... until the power went out Smilie ).

Read Chapter 2. What is Unix? for a short introduction

I'm sure you can find a lot more than this all over the Internet.
# 3  
Old 08-16-2002
Hey, I appreciate the info.

I'll read through that site you gave the link to and will probably be posting back here in the near future.

How can I try UNIX? Is it available to me somewhere?

Thanks again,
Eric
# 4  
Old 08-16-2002
Unix systems like FreeBSD and Linux are available all over the place. A good locus of ISOs can be found here.

I am a big fan of FreeBSD. The free online documentation can be found here.

For your first time out of the gate, I would suggest installing on a seperate HD and not worry about multi-boot.
# 5  
Old 08-21-2002
Quote:
However, it's command-line driven, meaning everything you want to do is done by typing on a command line, making it harder to grasp than windows where you just point-and-click to get things done.
This is sort of true, although GUI is available for unix. Some are quite windows like. Sure much of the higher functionality is controlled by the command-line but for general use a GUI will get you by about 80% of the time. BTW you'll find it's really not that hard to learn how to use the command line, it just takes a bit of practice.
As for what do people use it for, well I use mine for general desktop stuff; surfing the web, watching RealPlayer, listening to MP3's, email etc..... Basically I use mine like windows users use their computers only I can't play games with it.
Like auswipe I'm a fan of FreeBSD,

Got any more questions, just post them. Smilie
# 6  
Old 08-21-2002
UNIX is very cool and rewarding...

Here is a link to some other links that will help you learn UNIX.

I believe that it is worth your investment to learn UNIX. It is a very rewarding career for me.

The UNIX OS is more comparable to an NT Server as opposed to PC based MACs and WIN os systems. However, UNIX is MUCH more secure that NT or MAC or WINxx. and is more configurable in many ways.

https://www.unix.com/unix-desktop-questions-and-answers/6665-newbie-post23009.html?s=




Smilie Smilie Smilie
# 7  
Old 08-22-2002
there are lots of Xwindows desktop managers available for unix like systems. i have used linux so i would suggest for gnome and kde. and you can do everything there that you can do in M$Windows.
 
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