What are the operational differences between Linux and UNIX? Why would a programmer choose one over the other? What about software selection and ease of programming (with already basic knowledge of programming, and wanting to dive in to open source)?

In terms of Linux, what makes things like Red Hat cost money and things like Ubuntu not? Is pay-for OS based on Linux better quality than freely distributed OS? What is the best choice for Linux-or-Unix OS for a budding programmer?

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_diff..._Linux_and_Unix

That is a lot of questions within 2 paragraphs.. hehe

Google and wikipedia would be your best place to start reading, paste all those questions into google ...

Do tell us what programming language you wanted to learn ?

Open Source ,just download the source codes, read it, try to understand what the code does, read it again... and modify it to your liking, if they are useful to the rest of the community, do contribute your codes / modules / plugins back ...

I've used different types of unix : linux, aix, digital unix, solaris and now mac ox (Darwin) as my laptop.. once u know unix, all those variant should be quite similar... just learn the differences.. but the unix concept is still the same same..

The differences between paid OS and freely distributed, as far as I know, is their customer services & support.. If you're using free OS such as Ubuntu or Fedora, the only support you'll get is from the distro's community. But if you're using the paid one, you'll the support from the vendor..

Correct me if I'm wrong

yupz .. and normally paid OS e.g. redhat enterprise OS are used for servers rather than workstations

if u r going for all round programming OS, fedora would be a good startup since it has all the packages required to install the IDEs and related software u need. However, depends on what kind of programming language u r aiming at.

Most of the time any linux distro should do fine so depends on ur choice of KDE / GNOME / XCFE .... or even pure terminal environment

In term of programming, any distro should do the jobs. But, for a beginner in Linux/*nix, IMHO, do consider using a popular & n00b-friendly distro such as Ubuntu due to their large community. So, if we stuck on something, chances are, there's already (or will be soon) a solution posted out there. And, as far as I know, there's a lots of tutorial related to Ubuntu on the Net at this moment. I'm also rely on this bunch of tutorial since I got nowhere to turn when I got stucked on something.

So, its a matter of n00b friendly and community, IMHO, when its your first time trying a Linux, ALONE! Unless you've already got a teacher or some-sort-of-guru friends, than thats another story

p/s: I'm not an Ubuntu council members or anything, even not a members of local Ubuntu group (most of them too SOMBONG & BERLAGAK even bukan semua la..). Its just, by Ubuntu I gain my experiences on Linux/*nix

OOT: woot ? there's local ubuntu group? as in msia based?

wohoho... ubuntu users are sombong and berlagak? luckily I am the suser

yeap.. there is.. and if i'm not mistaken, every single country got their own local group (and its the official one)..

not the user in general la.. but the members of the group only..
hey buddy, do opensuse got a gnome desktop environment ?
i'd love to try but dont like kde

yup there is .. have a look here : GNOME - openSUSE

During first installation you'll get the prompt what DE is going to install either KDE, Gnome bla bla. KDE is the default but this time (opensuse 11.3) I choosed Gnome over KDE due to some reasons. Gnome desktop is solid as usual. Opensuse has altered it's Gnome where the taskbar is at the bottom as opposed to conventional Gnome at the top.

annotated in BLUE

yes. they have a forum IIRC

I'm just a lurker there though

will try OpenSuSE when my streamyx arrive..

Like ubuntu is default nice with gnome, openSUSE is just nice with KDE. I've been try to use gnome at openSUSE but no ok...

yea kinda agree with u .. tried Fedora with gnome b4 .. it just doesn't feel "right" with it >.<

Hehe, I am curious why you said that...

I use ubuntu too ... but for non-GUI I use debian...

But lately I read news saying that ubuntu (or the company behind it) is not contributing back to the open source community....

Anyway, let not go into a "my linux distribution is better than yr linux distribution" debate...

I heard that the company does not contribute back to the kernel.org

btw, hehe no distro flame here otherwise until the end of the day nobody wins.

i dont see any "my distro is better than yours" type of guy here (yet).. so, we better keep it that way..

err.. is fedora default DE is KDE ? i thought its GNOME..

/me is GNOME's kipas-susah-mati..

you called??

YEAH!!! SLACKWARE IS THE BE..

*b!tch slapped by mods for posting offensive word in RWI*

i find most of the distribution would stick with KDE, and sometimes i find them a bit odd... might be gnome having too much dependencies that force them to choose KDE? or issit KDE with it's window-ish interface actually drag user closer compared to gnome mac-ish layout??

for me... i just hate the foot logo...

uiks, me also don't know that fedora has implemeted KDE as it's default, missed the good old days since fedora core 1

#instant noodle yooo, The Foot also not my type but I am so keen to see the Gnome 3 preview. At first I read that the Gnome 3 will be release around this october 2010 but yesterday the gnome's developer announce that the final release would be on july next year. haiyaaa.

~.~ hate the foot logo
n yeah Fedora's default is KDE. and the distros now mostly got choice of GNOME/KDE so its reli up to ur choice

Well, it all depends on our choice

While I find KDE visually pleasing to the eyes, but for those who like keeping things simple yet attractive GNOME is a good choice, and is the main reason I am using both KDE and GNOME here. Apart from that GNOME also seems to give a visual value of a conducive work environment

that's my opinion though. may vary for other people

i did tried gnome one, loooong time ago when FC is still RH. then there was that pale to the ground KDE and gnome with the foot logo... and that lecturer was bashing my bash code either written in 1 long line

then when i visited RH again years later just to see the foot turned into a hat... with annoying RH Network button blinking...

but i did attempt visiting gnome again thru zenwalk, well, it's still the same but it's more customizable... (on work place thru vm, just... dun tell my boss... )

i can't help it...

it's big and it's ugly and full of gaps... well... compared with KDE in that time...

just leave the distro behind (yeah, u know whut i'm gonna yell when comes to that...), how about xfce?? it's like mixing and stirring both KDE and gnome together and i find it... disturbing... but i like it's simplistic menu...


edit: i've given back to that lecturer all those i learnt doing that time, starting from ground 0 again

This post has been edited by Instant_noodle: Aug 16 2010, 09:40 PM

Xfce is almost forgotten I guess, but LXDE now is getting popular due to its lightweight de. From the screenshot I would say LXDE is mini KDE.



http://lxde.org/lxde

opps sorry TS, we terhack your thread for a while

This post has been edited by powerwoot: Aug 16 2010, 10:12 PM

i had started a new topic to discuss bout desktop environment..
http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1528560

Linux is not UNIX period. UNIX is proprietary OS(most of them) which derive from either from Berkeley strain or AT&T or System V. Linux is otherwise is freshly written OS kernel by Torvalds and communities and licenses as Open Source. However Linux and UNIX do has similar look and feel due to POSIX compliant.

Most of C program written in UNIX can't be easily ported directly into Linux without re-compilation and vise versa. Today, it is UNIX that tries to mimic Linux, for example OpenSolaris project... only my 2 cents

This post has been edited by teknokrasi: Aug 17 2010, 11:15 AM

From what I (think I) know:
- Linux systems can be considered clones of UNIX.
- Most UNIX are commercial, most Linux distros are free and open source.
- Technically, UNIX usually refers to the entire OS, but Linux is really just the kernel.
- The file systems used in Linux are usually ext3 or ext4 in general. In UNIX, it's usually ufs or zfs (go try Solaris), jfs or gpfs, hfs or vxfs, etc.
- The popular Linux distros (Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE, etc) are usually more user-friendly than UNIX systems (Mac OS X is an exception).

More info: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/aix/libr...-difflinux.html

I've been using Linux for such a long time and was totally not aware of this matter...

During the 2009 FOSS.MY, a very famous person in the free and open source community, Richard Stallman, the founder of GNU ( GNU Not Unix / http://www.gnu.org/ ) explains clearly about this...

Linux should be called GNU/Linux instead of just Linux to give the credit to all the other contributors components in the operating system ( vi, cat, more, man, Xfree, gcc... )..

This is a bit of history of GNU/Linux for those that are interested...

yeah, linux should be called GNU/Linux.. but its already like a budaya that everyone just called it Linux.. haihh..

true but what to do.

I know that, but I guess most people prefer to call it just "Linux" in favor of convenience (of not having to pronounce the extra letters before Linux... )

This post has been edited by FlameReaper: Aug 25 2010, 04:34 AM

d00ds, how do you all pronounced GNU/Linux ?
i pronounced it as 'g-noo lee-nucks' but its always just 'lee-nucks'

I always finds it funny a lot of ppl pronounce it as "lee-nix" instead of "lee nucks.."

then again the American as "Lye" "Nucks"..

But nowdays, it all about branding branding, no more linux..... Ubuntu, Debian, Gentoo, Centos, Redhat, Suse....

my lecturer for UNIX system administrator also pronounce linux as "lee-nix" and i wondering why not "lee nucks"?
so i assume he was right since he has so many experiences(born and work at IBM in US and move to australia become lecturer)

actually, linus torvalds pronounce linux as "lee-nucks".. but most of people just pronounce it as "lee-nucks", "lee-nooks", "lee-nouks" or "lye-nucks".. but whatever its is, as long as its linux, its fine with me.. its bout slang isnt it


Attached File(s)
 torvalds_says_linux.mp3 ( 81.02k ) Number of downloads: 2

yeah most people i know calls it lie-nucks



This post has been edited by zenix: Aug 29 2010, 07:43 PM

i like gnome rather then kde

most do especially when starting out with easy to use ubuntu

I m a CLI person as most of my linux are on embedded board like Soekris board access via ssh..

My GUI is Mac OSX / Aqua interface .. best of both world.. unix based OS and nice mac interface..

I am a member of the Ubuntu forum community just because I try to get help when first using Ubuntu Linux. They are quite helpful. They have pay support also. It'll be worth it if you are using the server version.

in simple answer .

UNIX is an Operating System like Windows / Macintosh

Linux is only a kernel

thats all

I don't think all this while I pronounce "Linux" correctly.

This post has been edited by MatQuasar: Nov 9 2025, 06:52 PM

Thanks.....