Hey everyone! I'm new to this forum. I have a question. I know that linux is only a kernel and unix is something else. Is there a big difference between the two?

Unix is not free like linux and linux has a huge developing community behing it. The file systems used are also different. Linux uses ext3 and ext4 whereas unix uses jfs, gpfs, etc. Check out this link for more details: http://itcertificationindia.blogspot...ng-system.html

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Unix is the mother of linux.

to be called UNIX an OS has to meet certian criteria, i believe by the Open Group (or some similar organisation), Linux is a UNIX workalike and is even to a large degree source-code compatible with UNIX, like Linux, there are also various flavours of UNIX which are just as varied as the different Linux distributions.

Linux is what is described as a Unix-like system, meaning it strives to be Posix standard compliant, and adhere to the typical Unix file hierarchy and permissions model, and present a shell environment that is more or less compatible. There are many different brands of Unix that all differ to some degree. Your typical Unix version is similar to a Linux distribution, usually including a desktop environment, some compile programs, etc. You're correct in that Linux is technically just a kernel, while Unix usually refers to a more or less complete system.

Thank you guys! Thanks a lot!

See the image below. Will give you a rough history of Linux and UNIX. Courtesy: Wikipedia - Linux

UNIX is closed source, and Linux is open source kernel maintained by the community.
Linux was written from the source code of MINIX, the difference is that Linux is Monolithic kernel which was written by Linus Torvalds and MINIX is Microkernel which was written by Andrew Tanenbaum.
Linux uses the GNU ProjectGNU libraries, thats why it is also referred as GNU/Linux.
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EDIT: It is important to know the history before you build on it. My words.

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See also this for Linux derivatives/groupings https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...6/Gldt1106.svg

I am not very confortable with this statement though

Because even if Unix is older than Linux, Linux didn't included Unix code in its development (I dont even know if it does now, since a good amount of Unix has gone wild). And for what I heard it was Minix the OS that inspired Linux. Minix still available and is an OS utilized for teaching, also Unix code free.

I'd recommend this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Linux & http://www.computerhope.com/history/unix.htm

In practical terms, Linux is a Free Open Src re-implementation of Unix the concept.

Certified Unix https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_UNIX_Specification.
Actually there are several wikipedia articles which cover the history of Linux, Unix and what 'Certified Unix Standard' means.

There is a pretty good video on YouTube of one of Torvalds' talks, and he goes into the history of the kernel development and the influences on it:

http://youtu.be/WVTWCPoUt8w

IIRC, Minix had more of an influence, properly speaking, than other Unix OS's because Minix was the only one with licensing fees that Torvalds could afford.

Of course, Gnu/Linux is more than just the kernel. The Gnu project was the first OS project to aim for a completely free-as-in-freedom operating system, an idea picked up later by FreeBSD folks and others (including, eventually, Minix itself.)