Sorry for asking stupid questions here, but this particular question is one of them that doesn't come up very often, and I'd like to ask those who know it.

Oh one more question,


What can Unix do ??

Huh?

Unix as in SCO/HP-UX/Solaris?

Linux is a Unix clone, so basically
you would use Unix for all the things
you use Linux for?

Cheers,
Tink

Yea Linux
But i mean when you look at mac's Unix terminal it's like a command line thing where you type commands and do stuff. But what kind and Why??

Must be Eric Raymond time again ...

Please, read this carefully, and
then come back and ask again.

Cheers,
Tink

Unix is an operating system and like any other Operating System, it can do what any other OS can do except maybe give or take certain tasks, depending on how its designed, etc.

Commands are part of or are a shell to communicate with particular functions of an OS and so on.

What exactly are you looking for in an answer SweetChris? These questions you can get answered by looking up the basic definitions of Operating System or Shell, etc.

Thanks Trickykid
Unlike Someone who is obviously XXXXXX......
Yea back to my point
well i was just wondering cause there are books teaching you how to use Unix and i don't know what it is so....
And also since you said it can do any thing that linux can do, then why bother leaning Unix commands??

Most GUI frontends in *nix are just performing the commands in the background for you. Some prefer to do it thru a GUI, others at a command. Most of the time myself I do particular functions from the console or CLI (Command Line Interface) as I feel its faster than pointing and clicking in alot of cases.

Also alot of servers in which *nix based OS's primary function is don't use X or a GUI since that will only take up resources that can be used for serving purposes, etc.

unix shell operation is much faster and often more effective than a soley WIMP system, so you can get much more out of the system.

I'm confused though. here you are asking what unix is, at the most basic level, yet you start another thread in adoration of slackware....? how can you be so happy with a certain distro, and not understnad what unix is??

And I still think SweetChris should read
Eric Raymonds page on "How to ask
questions the smart way" even though
he refers to me as someone "who is
obviously XXXXXX....." :}

Cheers,
Tink

Who cares about syntax as long as you can read it

Nice post, Azmeen.

Silly thread, SweetChris.

Enjoy!
--- Cerbere

[edit] At least, it's silly to post it here in the Slackware forum. You do realize there's a 'General' forum, right? [/edit]

acid_kewpie
well its not i don't know what unix is.....
Is just that I don't fully understand what it is and would like to learn more form those who know

Take four on this post. *sigh* I'll get it eventually. I'm giving up on the attempt at a Unix-to-Linux history. I'm guessing you're just not getting the 'clone' aspect.

To resort to an Americanism, there's Coke and then there's a coke; Kleenex and a kleenex, Band-Aids and band-aids. Well, there's Unix and there's Unix. And there are IBM PCs and there are PCs. And Intel 80386s and i386s. Unix is a specific operating system originally developed at Bell Labs for minicomputers. Linux is a clone/port/mostly-compatible translation of Unix for the PC (though it, in turn, has been ported to all kinds of other stuff). Unix is the template on which Linux and BSD are based.

"Hey anyone got any idea what UNIX is used for??" Most anything any operating system is used for.
"What can Unix do ??" Most anything any operating system can do.
"But i mean when you look at mac's Unix terminal it's like a command line thing where you type commands and do stuff. But what kind and Why??" Mac's terminal gets to the BSD-like core of the new Mac system under the Mac GUI. Why? Because Unix rocks and Macs suck.
"...why bother leaning Unix commands??" Learning Unix commands is basically learning a variant subset of Linux commands - or learning Linux commands is learning a variant superset of Unix commands. In other words, a resource on Unix will teach you things about Linux because they're similar but you have to be aware of specific differences. A lot of man pages list 'POSIX OPTIONS' and 'GNU OPTIONS'. POSIX is an attempt to create a skeleton framework of interoperability between the splintered *nixes. GNU is the GNU guys adding stuff. Similar to calling bash as 'sh' or calling it as 'bash'. When you run Vim as Vim you get a lot nifty features. When you run it in vi-compatible mode, you don't get those, but you can go to a Unix workstation and fire up its standard-issue vi and run it the same as you were running vi-compatible Vim on Linux.

Unix is an operating system but it's also a *kind* of operating system. Linux and BSD are *kinds* of Unix. It's kind of like DOS and PC-DOS and DR-DOS and FreeDOS. Unix and BSD and Linux.

Well, what you like to do?

With Slackware Linux, this is what you can do (my recommended programs are in parenthesis):

* Surf the Internet, and use its services (Lynx, links, Opera, Mozilla, Firebird)
* Send email to your friends (Sylpheed, Evolution, mutt)
* Listen to music and MP3 files (xmms, GnomeCD)
* Edit text files quickly (vim)
* Watch videos and DVDs (mplayer, xine)
* Create pretty images (The Gimp, Sodipodi)
* Create professional-looking documents (LyX, TeX, Grustibus)
* Get your finances in order (GNUcash)
* Create other programs (Python, Perl, GCC, GDB, Kylix, QT, GTK+)
* Configure a server on your machine (Apache, BIND, ProFTPd, POP3/SMTP, SSH)
* Type letters, use a spreadsheet, etc... (Ted, AbiWord)
* Share documents between several different computers (Samba, NetaTalk, NFS)

In short you can do everything you do on Windows under Slackware Linux. It may be a little bit more complicated, but, overall, your system will be much faster, responsive and stable.

And this is just the beginning... Surf the Internet and look around and you will see many applications that are possible with Linux.