What is Unix?

Unix (often spelled "UNIX," especially as an official trademark) is an operating system that originated at Bell Labs in 1969 as an interactive time-sharing system. Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie are considered the inventors of Unix. The name (pronounced YEW-nihks) was a pun based on an earlier system, Multics. In 1974, Unix became the first operating system written in the C language. Unix has evolved as a kind of large freeware product, with many extensions and new ideas provided in a variety of versions of Unix by different companies, universities, and individuals.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of Unix?

 

                                              Advantages of unix

• Full multitasking with protected memory. Multiple users can run multiple
programs each at the same time without interfering with each other or
crashing the system.

• Very efficient virtual memory, so many programs can run with a modest
amount of physical memory.

• Access controls and security. All users must be authenticated by a valid
account and password to use the system at all. All files are owned by
particular accounts. The owner can decide whether others have read or write
access to his files.

• A rich set of small commands and utilities that do specific tasks well -- not
cluttered up with lots of special options. Unix is a well-stocked toolbox, not a
giant do-it-all Swiss Army Knife.

• Ability to string commands and utilities together in unlimited ways to
accomplish more complicated tasks -- not limited to preconfigured
combinations or menus, as in personal computer systems.

•
• The traditional command line shell interface is user hostile -- designed for the
programmer, not the casual user.

• Commands often have cryptic names and give very little response to tell the
user what they are doing. Much use of special keyboard characters - little
typos have unexpected results.

                                     Disadvantages of UNIX



• The traditional command line shell interface is user hostile -- designed for the
programmer, not the casual user.

• Commands often have cryptic names and give very little response to tell the
user what they are doing. Much use of special keyboard characters - little
typos have unexpected results.

• To use Unix well, you need to understand some of the main design features.
Its power comes from knowing how to make commands and programs
interact with each other, not just from treating each as a fixed black box.

• Richness of utilities (over 400 standard ones) often overwhelms novices.
Documentation is short on examples and tutorials to help you figure out how
to use the many tools provided to accomplish various kinds of tasks.



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