Difference between Unix and Linux


In this article, you will see the difference between Unix and Linux operating systems.

What is Unix?

Unix is an operating system originally developed in AT&T Bell Labs. Its development was started in 1970 by Ken Thomson, Dannis Ritchie, and others. Unix is widely used on servers, workstations, etc.

Unix is a proprietary operating system initially it was intended to use on Bell systems but in late 1970, AT&T started licensing Unix to outside parties. This leads to the emergence of a variety of Unix variants including BSD, Xenix(Microsoft), Solaris, HP-UX, and AIX.

The key features of the Unix OS

  • It is a multi-user and multi-tasking operating system
  • Unix is portable as it is written in a high-level language
  • It uses a hierarchal filesystem so retrieving information is fast and easy
  • Used as the master control program in workstations and servers.
  • Hundreds of utility programs for various functions are available

What is Linux?

Linux is an open-source, Unix-like operating system developed by Linux Torvalds in 1991. Generally, Linux operating system is packaged into distributions. A Linux distribution contains Linux kernel, desktop environments, and other tools some most popular distributions are Debian, Ubuntu, RHEL, Arch Linux, etc.

Linux OS is widely used in desktops, servers, mobile phones, mainframes, embedded devices, etc. Its popularity is rising day by day.

The key feature of Linux OS

  • It is a multiuser, multitasking operating system
  • Linux is lightweight os you can use it in live USB
  • It is opensource that means you can modify its code to make your own version of Linux distribution
  • It is portable you can run it on a wide range of hardware
  • Highly secure

Differences between Unix and Linux

The following table shows the differences between Unix and Linux operating systems.

Conclusion

I hope now you understand the differences between Unix and Linux operating systems. Now if you have any query then write us in the comments below.

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