Exploring UNIX/Linux to Understand Operating Systems
Computers lead the world of technology, in order to understand a computer you need to know how one works by understanding the UNIX/Linux operating system’s history, uses in today’s world, file editors, management functions and advantages over other operating systems. Every computer runs an operating system to process data, user input, manage and perform tasks. One of the first operating systems created is UNIX which is the base system in later developments like Linux. UNIX and Linux are used today in many ways. They both offer many common features and file editors. UNIX has influenced the creation of other operating systems such as Microsoft Windows. UNIX and Microsoft Windows are the two biggest competitors on the market and each have their advantages and disadvantages. Much focus has been turned towards UNIX because of its history, influence, structure and features.
UNIX and Linux are both operating systems designed to be portable, multitasking and multi-user platforms in a time-sharing configuration. An operating system or OS is a program that allows you to interact with all of the software and hardware on your computer (Haas). These two operating systems offer all the basics needed to understand how operating systems work. Their history, security and performance record is what gives UNIX and Linux so much credibility to be outstanding operating systems. UNIX being the first of its kind was developed in 1970 to be used by programmers and was written in the C programming language which many systems follow today. UNIX is an “open-system” which has aided it to be used on a wider variety of machine families and can be configured to allow unrestricted access by people or other computers. UNIX uses the hierarchical file system where all files and directories, even files from different physical devices appear under one main directory called “root.” Its time-sharing configuration allows multiple users to share a...