Lesson 1 - Introduction to UNIX
Required Reading
- Learning
UNIX : Introduction
- WWW: A
Brief History of UNIX
- WWW: NT
vs. UNIX
Additional Notes
UNIX has been around a long time (over 30 years) and has
gone through a very interesting development. Unlike products
such as Microsoft NT, UNIX was really a community development,
with the user community working to make it more and more robust.
Companies have developed their own proprietary implementations
(AIX, Solaris, HP/UX, etc. -- check out this list
of flavors), but much of the underlying code is in common,
and most commands will work on any UNIX system. This community
development approach is really what gives UNIX it's edge.
One of the most confusing aspects of UNIX for beginners is
the concept of differnt "flavors" of UNIX. How does AIX compare
to Linux and Solaris? As discussed in the article on the history
of UNIX, all versions of UNIX are derived from a common origin.
What happened is that companies broke off to develop their
own versions of UNIX, adding in their special enhancements
and improvments, but keeping the same basic command structure.
Most of the commands we will learn in this class will work
on any variety of UNIX. The differences between UNIX flavors
are fairly subtle (ie not nearly as dramatic as Windows vs
Macintosh) but you do need to be aware of which version you
are using.
Next Step
Take the self-quiz
Continue to lesson 2
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