UNIX
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
UNIX is a computer operating system, developed during the late 1960s at Bell Labs. This system is a multiuser and multiprocessing system. This means that it can do several things at the same time. Also, it is network oriented; which means that it is meant to operate in a network of computers. Security is also of great importance in UNIX mainly because of the multiuser concept but also the networked environment it resides in.
It could be argued that UNIX is now best described as a "philosophy" or a blueprint for an operating system, since so many other operating systems conform to the UNIX "way of doing things" but cannot strictly be called UNIX.
The popular operating system Linux is based around UNIX, as well as the core of the operating system named "OS X", which is used on Apple's Macintosh computer.
The concept of holding a user account is deeply ingrained in UNIX, owing to its multiuser heritage. Normally this means that any files created by you can only be read or edited by you and no other users on the system unless such permissions are explicitely granted to user users or groups. The administrator of a UNIX system is called the "superuser" and uses the "root" account. They can access and write to all files on the system.
The main method of interacting with a UNIX system has always been the command line interface. You run commands and programs by typing them at the command line. This is an extremely powerful and flexible way of working as it allows automation and is still used by most UNIX users and administrators.
A graphical user interface typically used by UNIX systems is the X Window System. The X Window System is only a bare shell of a graphical interface and mainly a protocol. The X Window System itself does not provide decorations for windows or controls to the user to move and resize windows. This is handled by a window manager or desktop manager.
Some of the popular desktop environments and window managers are:
Like most other graphical user interfaces, they use windows, dialog boxes, support the use of a computer mouse and are designed to be easy to use.
There are many thousands of programs available for the X Window System. Programs like word processors and spreadsheets are available including free and open-source software.
