Evo,
It is my opinion that there are more similarities than dissimilarities between UNIX and Linux. If you are interested, here's a little background:
Both operating systems have non-commercial beginnings. UNIX at AT&T's Bell Labs in the 1960's, and Linux at the University of Helsinki in Finland in the early 1990's.
Over time, the UNIX source code (both the BSD and System V branches) has been adopted by many computer hardware vendors (e.g. Sun, HP, Tandem, Compaq, etc), and then modified to sell with their proprietary hardware solutions.
Linux is not UNIX, but is often called a UNIX-like operating system. Linus Torvald developed the kernel for Linux, and many others have contributed to its continued development by downloading the source code from the Internet. Many companies (e.g. RedHat, Mandrake, etc) take the Linux kernel and package it with other utilities/programs to form a Linux operating system distribution.
Check out these websites for getting a copy of UNIX/Linux:
http://www.bsd.org/
http://www.redhat.com/
http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/
http://www.suse.com/index_us.html
These are just a few suggestions. You may want use Google and search on something like "UNIX download" or "Linux download." If you don't have a high-speed connection to the Internet, you may want to seriously consider ordering a copy or picking one up at the store.
Hope this helps!
Biker
Systems/Network Administrator
LiveFire Labs - Hands-On Technical e-Learning
www.LiveFireLabs.com
10-09-2002
linx and Unix
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