Free UNIX distribution

[Gundamdriver]

Hi. I am an experienced user of Microsoft Windows, and now I want to have some changes.

I have been using Microsoft Windows for many years, and, I wanted to try Linux too. But there are too many distribution... From RedHat, Mandrake...etc. It is difficult to choose becoz different distribution needs different applications. Applications on RedHat cannot run on Mandrake...

(Am I wrong? I am confused too...)

So, are there less distribution of UNIX than that of Linux? I want to try UNIX rather than Linux... It sounds more powerful to use UNIX... Hehe...

Recently I have only heard that Sun and SCO has UNIX distribution... Any difference between them? And, is it difficult to find applications to install on the system?

One more question, do I need a very powerful machine to operate UNIX?

My computer specification:

CPU: Intel 2.40B GHz

RAM: 256MB x2

Hard disk: (1) 80GB, (2) 40GB

Motherboard: Magic-Pro MP-P4FM-533

Thanks for reply.

[gigapixels Veteran]

Yes, you are wrong in your thinking that different distro's need different apps. All you have to do is compile the source on your system and it will work. Different distro's have different methods of getting software to users, but any package you can download with Portage on Gentoo you can either get in an RPM for RedHat/Fedora or you can at least get the source and compile it (the same goes with any distro's; I was just using Gentoo and RedHat for example purposes). It's that simple. I would highly recommend going with Linux though, rather than UNIX, because AFAIK there is more support for Linux right now. If you do end up going with Linux, I recommend Ubuntu; it's supposed to be pretty easy to set up but not too easy like RedHat/Fedora. Or even Gentoo, although that's meant for more experienced users, as far as setting it up is concerned, but Portage is VERY powerful and easy to use for installing programs and such.

There'll probably be better replies than this, but I'm simply telling you what knowledge my own experiences have given me.

[Miuku.]

As it stands, I can't recommend Solaris 10 (x86) for anyone with even remotely exotic hardware (Or even some of the more common..), the hardware support as it stands is simply not varied enough to warrant promoting it.

If you've never used Unixoids before, I suggest you get Ubuntu and start from there, jumping straight to a more advanced system would most likely cause you to rip your eyes out, mainly because it's so different.

[trance]

freebsd

[Dead in Vegas]

Debian is very good and easy to install.

[Chicane-UK Veteran]

If you want to try a real UNIX, then Solaris 10 is your best bet IMHO..

FreeBSD is good though, even though its not quite a proper / real UNIX..

[Lighthalzen]

FreeBSD is good for starters because of their port system, give it a try!

[chrischua83]

用FreeBSD吧！

http://www.freebsd.org

你可以download for free! :D

[ufis]

i have tried all diffrent versions of linux. Gentoo is great if you can install it. If you want to get the feel for linux the easiest is linspire. linspire worked great for me and i didnt have to search for drivers and such after installing. Installing software is very easy but you have to pay for a membership after the free trial is up. but you can still keep all the software you install during the free trial. you can download it for free on any bittorent site and it is legal to do so. I would try installing that to get the feel and move up to fedora or gentoo from there.

[Mike Douglas]

The UNIX trademark means nothing in today's world. Pure UNIX operating systems haven't been in heavy development for over 10 years (excluding Solaris). Even Solaris is starting to show its age, as Sun tries to promote futures enhancements (ZFS) or vapourware (Janus) to stop the bleeding of its marketshare. The Open Source Unix operating systems like Linux and the *BSDs are the way of the future.

UNIX is dead, long live Unix. ;)

[Gundamdriver]

Wow...

Thanks for all reply!!!

I think I am going to try Solaris and RedHat Fedora...

P.S. It is said that Mac OS is now based on UNIX... Is that true?

Thanks!!!

[Rockett15]

  Gundamdriver said:

Wow...

Thanks for all reply!!!

I think I am going to try Solaris and RedHat Fedora...

P.S. It is said that Mac OS is now based on UNIX... Is that true?

Thanks!!!

586132067[/snapback]

Yep, all MacOS 10 releases are based on UNIX.

[h3xis]

  Quote

Yep, all MacOS 10 releases are based on UNIX.

BSD to be exact.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

  Gundamdriver said:

P.S. It is said that Mac OS is now based on UNIX... Is that true?

586132067[/snapback]

Has been based on BSD for about 5 years (official, rtm releases), but the codebase has been BSD for about 8 years.

[raipe]

  Gundamdriver said:

P.S. It is said that Mac OS is now based on UNIX... Is that true?

It's a BSD branch and it can be downloaded for x86 at

Darwin @ apple dot com

or

OpenDarwin

:)

[El_Cu_Guy]

  Quote

BSD to be exact.

BSD IS Unix. That's Unix not UNIX.

BSD 1 was Based on UNIX V6. Much of the BSD development found it's way into back into UNIX (or what you apparently consider UNIX). System V Release 4 would unify System V, BSD, and Xenix. Quite a bit of UNIX was BSD anyway.

  Quote

The UNIX trademark means nothing in today's world.

Wrong. The use of the UNIX trademark signifies that a system can be called UNIX. This means that it has been certified by the Open Group (which owns the mark). Traditionally before this numerous products were released branded as UNIX with absolutely no common ties to UNIX. UNIX by the way is no longer an OS but a specification for systems.

What about Linux??>

Developed by Linus Torvalds, Linux is a product that mimics the form and function of a UNIX system, but is not derived from licensed source code. Rather, it was developed independently; by a group of developers in an informal alliance on the net. A major benefit is that the source code is freely available (under the GNU copyleft), enabling the technically astute to alter and amend the system; it also means that there are many, freely available, utilities and specialist drivers available on the net. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

Recent versions of Glibc include much functionality from the Single UNIX Specification, Version 2 (for UNIX 98) and later.

What about BSDI?>

BSDI is an independent company that markets products derived from the Berkeley Systems Distribution (BSD), developed at the University of California at Berkeley in the 60's and 70's. It is the operating system of choice for many Internet service providers. It is, as with Linux, not a registered UNIX system, though in this case there is a common code heritage if one looks far enough back in history.>

--- source: OpenGroup.org, "What about all those "flavors""

UNIX Chronology

[Mike Douglas]

  El_Cu_Guy said:

Wrong.  The use of the UNIX trademark signifies that a system can be called UNIX.  This means that it has been certified by the Open Group (which owns the mark).  Traditionally before this numerous products were released branded as UNIX with absolutely no common ties to UNIX.  UNIX by the way is no longer an OS but a specification for systems.

586159400[/snapback]

I ment qualitywise, as the free-Unix operating systems have caught up to the UNIX operating systems.

[LaNcom]

The Unix certification has nothing to do with the or origin, as Linux was once supposed to get Unix98 certified - Caldera applied for the certificate back then, but stopped that endeavour as they changed their name to SCO. Go figure... :-) So if the certificate defines Unix, Linux _could_ get it, but that's quite expensive and considered a waste of time these days, as Linux has a higher share of the market as any Unix, anyway.