I know this questions has probably been asked many times before, but having read so many different answers to this type of question, i thought I'd try myself.

What are the main differences?

Where would I obtain a version of Unix to try?

Thanks

Harry

linux IS unix. or rather it's a clone of unix. While unix started out as a tangible project at Bell Labs it is basically more of a type of sytem rather than an actual system, so Solaris, AIK, HP-UX, Linux, BSD are all Unix generally speaking.

"Hello everybody out there using minix - I'm doing a (free) operating system (ju
st a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones."
-- Linus, Aug 91



Unix, on the other hand, costs lots of $$

Were you wish to obtain that operating system still known as Unix, you could either purchase it in one of several incarnations, or there are free distributions available, based on your situation. (Student, regular end user, et cetera) Solaris is sometimes available from Sun for free (they change their minds at random)

www.sun.com


and there are two flavors of Unix called NetBSD and FreeBSD.

www.netbsd.org

www.freebsd.org

There are many other flavors and variants, ranging from (now mostly defunct) SCO Unix, to Minix, Xenix, and just about everythign else that ends with an X that isn't linux. Even the new Mac OS X has a Unix base. But if you were just wanting to get the feel for Unix, you can still stick with linux.


Hope that helps to answer your question...

unix is a trademark owned by the Open Group. Therefore, Linux is not unix. In fact, some say it is illegal to say Linux is a "unix-like operating system". See http://kernelbook.sourceforge.net/pdf/ch-intro.pdf BSD is however, unix, so if you want to try unix, that is probably the best unless you are able to acquire the often specially built machines for the proprietory unixes, since many will not run on a i386. Check eBay, you may beable to get a sparc (Solaris) or RS6000 (AIX) machine cheap with an operating system already installed. With AIX (at least), the license for the software often comes with the machine, therefore you might be able to get updates beyond what is available for free download (much now).

Unix - Designed by programmers for programmers

Linux - Designed by hackers for hackers


Linux , Dos , NT - The Good , The Bad and The Ugly