What is Unix?

An operating system is the program that controls all the other parts of a computer system, both the
hardware and the software. It allocates the computer's resources and schedules tasks. It allows you to
make use of the facilities provided by the system. Every computer requires an operating system.

UNIX is a computer operating system.

UNIX is a multi-user, multi-tasking operating system. Multiple users may have multiple tasks running
simultaneously. This is very different from PC operating systems such as MS-DOS or MS-Windows (which
allows multiple tasks to be carried out simultaneously but not multiple users).

UNIX is a machine independent operating system. Not specific to just one type of computer hardware.
Designed from the beginning to be independent of the computer hardware.

It was designed to be used exclusively by programmers and became a leading operating system

for workstations because of its portability, flexibility, and power.

UNIX is a software development environment. Was born in and designed to function within this type of
environment.

A key difference between the Unix OS and others OS (e.g., PC) is that Unix is designed for multiple users.
That is multiple users may have multiple tasks running simultaneously. Its original purpose was to
facilitate software development. It is the primary OS used by physical scientists everywhere, and all
supercomputing facilities use it.
Historically, it has been less popular in the personal computer market than professional settings, but
numerous UNIX distributions like FreeBSD, Linux, and macOS brought UNIX principles into the
mainstream.

The UNIX operating system is made up of three parts; the kernel, the shell and the programs.

 The Kernel: - The core of the UNIX system. Loaded at system start up (boot); manages the entire
resources of the system. Examples of what it does are: interpreting and executing instructions
from the shell, managing the machine’s memory and allocating it to processes, scheduling the
work done by the cpu’s.
 The Shell: - Whenever you login to a Unix system you are placed in a shell program. The shell is
a command interpreter; it takes each command and passes it to the operating system kernel to
be acted upon. It then displays the results of this operation on your screen.
 Utilities: - UNIX provides several hundred utility programs, often referred to as commands. The
commands accomplish universal functions such as printing, editing files, etc.
HISTORY OF UNIX
UNIX development was started in 1969 at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey. Bell Laboratories was (1964–1968)
involved on the development of a multi-user, time-sharing operating system called Multics (Multiplexed
Information and Computing System). Multics was a failure. In early 1969, Bell Labs withdrew from the Multics
project.

Bell Labs researchers who had worked on Multics (Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Douglas McIlroy, Joseph
Ossanna, and others) still wanted to develop an operating system for their own and Bell Labs’ programming,
job control, and resource usage needs.

When Multics was withdrawn Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie needed to rewrite an operating system in
order to play space travel on another smaller machine. The result was a system called UNICS (UNiplexed
Information and Computing Service) which was an 'emasculated Multics'.

The first version of Unix was written in the low-level PDP-7 assembler language. Later, a language called
TMG was developed for the PDP-7 by R. M. McClure. Using TMG to develop a FORTRAN compiler, Ken
Thompson instead ended up developing a compiler for a new high-level language he called B, based on
the earlier BCPL language developed by Martin Richard. When the PDP-11 computer arrived at Bell Labs,
Dennis Ritchie built on B to create a new language called C. in 1972 Unix components were later
rewritten in C, and finally with the kernel itself in 1973.
 Ken Thompson (Seated) and Dennis Ritchie, working on PDP-11 and UNIX in 1972

Unix V6, released in 1975 became very popular. Unix V6 was free and was distributed with its source code.
In 1983, AT&T released Unix System V which was a commercial version.

Meanwhile, the University of California at Berkeley started the development of its own version of Unix. Berkeley
was also involved in the inclusion of Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) networking
protocol.

The following were the major mile stones in UNIX hostory early 1980's

• AT&T was developing its System V Unix.

• Berkeley took initiative on its own Unix BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution) Unix.
• Sun Microsystems developed its own BSD-based Unix called SunOS and later was renamed to Sun
Solaris.
• Microsoft and the Santa Cruz operation (SCO) were involved in another version of UNIX called XENIX.
• Hewlett-Packard developed HP-UX for its workstations.
• DEC released ULTRIX.
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the influence of Unix in academic circles led to large-scale
adoption of Unix by many commercial startups, for example Solaris, HP-UX and AIX.

Today, in addition to certified Unix systems such as those already mentioned, Unix-like operating
systems such as Linux and BSD descendants (FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD) are commonly
encountered.

Bell Labs distributed the operating system in its source language form, so anyone who obtained a copy
could modify and customize it for their unique needs. By the end of the 1970s, dozens of UNIX
derivatives were running at various sites. After its government-mandated breakup in 1982, AT&T began
to market UNIX in earnest. It also began the long and arduous process of defining a standard version of
UNIX.

Today, the trademarked “UNIX” and the “Single UNIX Specification” interface are owned by The Open
Group. An operating system that is certified by The Open Group to use the UNIX trademark conforms to
the Single UNIX Specification. The specification is updated every few years to certify new UNIX
derivatives that are aligned with UNIX V7, the last version of UNIX that was released in 1979.

Advantages
 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.
 A powerfully unified file system. Everything is a file: data, programs, and all physical devices.
Entire file system appears as a single large tree of nested directories, regardless of how many
different physical devices (disks) are included.
 A lean kernel that does the basics for you but doesn't get in the way when you try to do the
unusual.
 Available on a wide variety of machines - the most truly portable operating system.
 Optimized for program development, and thus for the unusual circumstances that are the rule in
research.

Disadvantages
 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.