What is Unix?

Unix is a powerful, multi-user environment designed primarily for servers and advanced users. It has a steeper learning curve than other operating systems, such as Windows or Mac OS, but offers superb flexibility and stability. Though inexperienced users sometimes find its complexity daunting, Unix is very popular, and in recent years it has become more accessible.

Unix was developed at Bell Labs in 1969, but in the past three decades many others have contributed to its evolution. In reality, Unix is not so much a single operating system as it is a standard upon which organizations and companies base their own systems. Examples of Unix implementations include AIX (IBM), Solaris (Sun Microsystems), IRIX (SGI), BSD/OS (BSDi), and Linux (GNU). To the casual user, these different systems are very similar because they all provide a common interface through the Unix shell.

As with other operating systems, there are many kinds of applications available on a Unix system. E-mail, news reading, programming, statistics, and graphics are some of the areas for which Unix software exists. Unix was once distinct from other operating systems because of its high level of integration with the network and its multi-user environment. Each user who logs in can have an environment distinct from that of any other user. In recent years, however, this distinction has blurred as other operating systems have developed these capacities. With the increasing popularity of free Unix systems like Linux and FreeBSD, as well as the advanced graphical user interface the X Window system offers, more individuals are also using Unix as the operating system for their personal workstations.