See also: Operating Systems | POSIX | *Nix
UNIX is a cross-platform operating system written in C. It has become the mainstay for servers both large and small.
Although capitalized, UNIX is not an acronym, a play on the term MULTICS or a multi-user operating system. It is also a registered trademark of The Open Group – www.unix.org. Its derivatives such as Linux and BSD all share a common ancestry intermingled with UNIX. Any current or past UNIX is frequently referred to as *NIX.
- m2p2 – netmeister.org’s missing man pages project
Contents
UNIX design principles
- Small is beautiful.
- A program should do one thing well.
Positive
- Allows for UNIX scripting and development that doesn’t re-invent the wheel
- More secure (and often faster) by using time-tested programs
- Entire UNIX operating systems can run on a single 1.4 meg floppy disk (sometimes smaller)
- Many applications are open-source and benefit from community development and testing
For instance, a basic program could be written to run daily using chron and send files using FTP to a server with a secure tunnel system using stunnel. All three programs are already created and well-tested, allowing the programmer to focus on the why instead of the how and existing features can be added to the program/script without difficulty.
Negative
- Often alien and inaccessible to individuals new to UNIX
- A learning curve is associated with learning all these smaller programs
Many UNIX systems simplify their user-interfaces with programs such as GNOME and KDE. These window managers act as a front-end for many command-line operations and are fast approaching Windows and Macintosh in terms of usability. Mac OS X runs Aqua, a proprietary window manager atop a specialized UNIX-like system called “Darwin.”
This system also allows for tiny UNIX distributions that can be placed on a floppy or installed on older hardware.
Operating Systems with their foundation in the Unix world
Emulation
Run UNIX on other systems:
- Cygwin
- Virtual PC – now owned by Microsoft and therefore with potentially confusing objectives.
Related Topics, Unix terms
- Open Directory Project – UNIX
- Root
- Unix and Unix clones tutorials
- dev/null
- fsck
- Permissions
- Keep It Simple Stupid principle (KISS) – similar to the UNIX design principle
TakeDown.NET -> “Unix”