What is linux and what is unix?

I thought I heard most of the terms used in computer lingo, and I'll admit I'm not the smartest person when it comes to computers, but I've been reading here and there about linux and unix in regards to different types of computers and just wondered what they refer to. Is this some kind of operating system? Is it something to do with processors?
Thanks in advance for any replies.

Tunesman.

[KraGorn]

I'm, sure a mod will move this somewhere more appropriate.

Briefly ....

"Unix" and "Linux" are Operating Systems, as is "Windows", "Mac/OS" (now known as "OS/X" I believe) etc. "Unix" was developed in the early 1970s. "Linux" was initially developed by a Fin named Linus Torvalds in the early 90s and is a Unix-lookalike, hence the name "Linux".

The name "Unix" was derived from an earlier system called "Multics" .. "Multics" was a multi-user system "Unix" was initially conceived as a single-user system (ie. 'Uni').

A PC can run Windows as its' Operating System (aka. O/S) or Linux or Unix or one of several others. Programs written for one O/S rarely run on another. While Windows effectively only runs these days on Intel-based PCs (which includes AMD and other Intel-lookalike processors), Unix and Linux run on most computers.

Linux is free, Windows is not.

More info available if required.

KraGorn, thank you for your reply. You mentioned that Windows can run on either Linux or Unix, but I was just wondering, what system runs on macintosh computers and why? Is one system better than the other? Thanks again for the info.

Tunesman.

[JayX]

windows doesn't "run" on unix/linux... they're alternatives. for instance, you can have a betamax video or a VHS video. they both do a similar thing, but they're competitors and not compatable with eachother.

linux runs a variety of different desktops that look similar to the windows environment you'll be used to. KDE is a more popular one, and you can see a variety of screencaps at kdelook.org.

as for the mac, the latest version of the macs OS is called OS X. its unix based.

one system isn't "better" than the other, it all depends what purposes you have. windows is certainly bloated and crappy, BUT it is easy to use and the majority of commercial software is developed for the win32 environment. practically every good website you'll visit will use a Unix based server tho, not a windows based server. its different tools for different things.

if you're interested in *nix, then install a distribution of linux onto a spare pc, or a spare partition on your hard disk. distributions are like "versions", each differs from the other, and the most newb friendly distro is called Mandrake. its free, so look it up on google and see if it might interest you. its not for everyone, as the linux world is very different to windows (even if they might look the same on the surface) but there's only one way to find out

[Mr.D]

I use all three: windows , linux and Unix ( Irix is the particular flavour).
I don't really have a preference though its all about what the software runs under. Mostly I'm in linux with a bit of W2K occasionally and I have an Irix machine ( sgi Octane) that runs older software but its much nicer using the unix machine for moving files about the network although linux is very similar.