What is linux? what is Unix? what is the difference bstween the two?

Linux is a PC operating system. It's source code is open to the world to download, modify and compile under the GNU Public License. Linux is one of MANY flavors of Unix. Unix is an operating system that runs on nearly everything you can imagine. It has been around for a long time. It is also the basis for many modern operating systems including Microsoft Windows (though MS won't admit to that). As for the differences between the two, what flavor of unix do you like? Linux is more of a vanilla.

"vanilla" very milky... well, linux is pretty much the altair of the old days. it was hobby which turned into a huge(gigantic) system development platform. Unix on the other hand is an enterprise class operating system which cost bundles and bundles of money to own one. money vs hobby... ----------------------------------- u remember how the little snow ball rolled into on heck of a huge one, it will be do damage to other trees... i hope spring come early..

Here it is: Unix was developed by AT&T labs back in the 70s, but AT&T wasn't allowed to sell software at the time, so they distributed it to universities for use... the development split into the following: HP-UX (HP Unix), AIX (IBM Unix), Solaris (SUN Unix), FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD; the first 3 are enterprise class OS's for huge mainframe systems; UNIX rocks NT's world on the server....the problem is that they usually require special hardware...Linux and *BSD can run on the Intel x86 processor which makes it ideal for many people... Anyway, Linux was started as a hobby; a cheap LInux clone for X86 b/c Linus Torvalds himself wanted Unix for his machine, but couldn't afford it- Linux is open source (like *BSD) and is maintained by legions of programmers....Its developement continues today...its technical name is GNU/Linux - GNU stands for "Not Unix"