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UNIX AND WINDOWS

UNIX AND WINDOWS The Unix operating system is a powerful programming environment designed by and for computer programmers. Unix is available on a wide variety of computer systems, including personal computers, workstations, mainframes and supercomputers. It was developed for, and is particularly well suited to, multi-user systems, but is now also run on 'stand-alone' machines. Beginners and casual users often find the jargon-filled help system frustrating and the lack of icons and menus unfriendly. Unix was first developed in the early 1970s at Bell Laboratories in the USA. It was originally developed as a system to be used by the staff in the laboratories, and it was principally intended to provide an operating system that people would enjoy using. It was designed for users who were largely computer scientists, which may explain some of the more arcane and apparently unfriendly features of Unix, such as the obscure sounding command names. AT&T (the owners of Bell Laboratories) made Unix available at nominal cost to academic users, with whom it became popular. This helped to create a market for Unix, at a time when technological changes had themselves created a need for a portable multi-user operating system. As a result Unix began to be adopted by non-academic users in the 1980’s, as it became commercially available. Several standards are now being worked out, and Unix is steadily becoming the standard operating system in many environments. Unix has the following advantages: Portability Unix is written in the high level language C. This makes it easy to install on new computing systems. Applications written to run on a Unix system will hopefully run on any Unix system, regardless of the hardware. Popularity Unix is available on many widely used systems. It is very widely used and it has become the de facto standard for academic users, and for all multi-user applications. They are many different versions of Unix, as well as some Unix 'lookalikes'. The most widely used are: System V (distributed by the original developers, AT&T) AIX (IBM) Berkeley BSD (from the University of California, Berkeley) SunOS, now known as Solaris (from the makers of Sun workstations) Xenix (a PC version of Unix). The Unix operating system consists basically of the kernel and the shell. The kernel is the part carries out basic operating system functions such as accessing files, allocating memory and handling communications. A shell provides the user interface to the kernel. A number of shells are available on the Unix operating system including the Bourne shell and the C shell. The shell is basically an extensive program that runs all the time that you are logged on to the computer, and provides an interactive interface between the user and the computer functions. The C shell is the default shell for interactive work on many Unix systems. Most users don't see much difference among the variants of Unix (ULTRIX, AIX, etc.), because the shell program handles interactions between the user and the operating system. When you type a command "at Unix," you are actually typing it at the shell. The shells are the same no matter what type of Unix you use; for example, Korn shell will look the same whether the computer you use is AIX or ULTRIX. You can choose from several shells: Korn shell (ksh), C- shell (csh), TC-shell (tcsh), or Bourne-again shell (bash). Except for syntax differences, beginners won't notice many differences among the shell programs. The default shell on most shared UCS Unix computers is ksh. A number of shells are available for Unix systems, including: Graphical User Interface (GUI) shells The Bourne shell, which was developed by Steve Bourne at Bell Laboratories, is one of the oldest shells and, as such, has gained a lot of popularity. It is widely used for shell programming because of its efficiency and because it is available on all Unix systems. The C shell provides sophisticated interactive capabilities lacking in the Bourne shell. The C shell, which was developed at the University of California, Berkeley, has a syntax, which resembles the C language. Features of the C shell include a command history buffer, command aliases and file name completion. However the C shell does not allow efficient shell programs (also known as scripts) to be written. Due to the fact that C shell programs are written in a style similar to the C programming language, people who are unfamiliar with C may find the C shell difficult to program in. The Korn shell combines the best features of the Bourne and C shells. Korn scripts are 95% upwardly compatible with Bourne scripts. The Korn shell interactive features include: Graphical User Interface (GUI) shells provide a iconic interface to Unix. GUI shells require the use of workstations (or powerful microcomputers) which perform part of the processing locally. The use of GUIs such as X-Windows is likely to become increasingly important in the near future. The Bourne shell is the oldest shell, and is widely used. The C shell has more utilities however and is probably more widely used now. However the Bourne shell is recommended for shell programs. The Korn shell is not widely available and is not a standard part of Unix, but is perhaps the best option if available. NT refers to the computer's operating system. An operating system dictates how all the parts of your computer work together and how specific tasks are to be performed. Windows NT 4.0 is similar in appearance and style to Windows 95. Windows 3.11 and NT 4.0 share few of the same characteristics. So, if you have been using Windows 95 on your personal computer, the transition to NT 4.0 should be relatively easy. · NT works quickly (when using programs running under NT) · All resources are accessible from the desktop · Desktop windows can be resized and moved, and resource icons can be added and removed · Your computer hardware may not be capable of running NT · NT cannot run all programs (Some DOS, Windows 3.x and Windows 95 programs may not run at all) · Files can be converted up, but not down, e.g., an Excel v.7 file created and saved in Windows NT or 95 cannot be opened directly into Excel v.5 for Windows 3.11 · File names can have as many as 255 characters, and the file name can have spaces in it Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Vs. UNIX. IT managers worldwide are being confronted with the question, should we go with Microsoft Windows NT Server or one of the UNIX operating systems? UNIX is a mature, technically superior group of operating systems with a proven track record for performance, reliability, and security in a server environment. The almost thirty years of continual development, performed often by volunteers who believe in what they're doing, has produced a group of operating systems--and extremely powerful multiprocessor server hardware tailor-made to its needs, whose performance is still unparalleled by Intel hardware--that not only meets the demands of today's computing needs, but in many cases exceeds them. What can you expect from Windows NT Server out of the box and from UNIX out of the box? NT can communicate with many different types of computers. So can UNIX. NT can secure sensitive data and keep unauthorized users off the network. So can UNIX. Essentially, both operating systems meet the minimum requirements for operating systems functioning in a networked environment. Put briefly, UNIX can do anything that NT can do and more. What can you expect from Windows NT Server out of the box and from UNIX out of the box? NT can communicate with many different types of computers. So can UNIX. NT can secure sensitive data and keep unauthorized users off the network. So can UNIX. Essentially, both operating systems meet the minimum requirements for operating systems functioning in a networked environment. Put briefly, UNIX can do anything that NT can do and more. NT does not provide any mechanism for limiting a user's disk usage! In general, a UNIX server is halted only in the following situations: · Due to a hardware failure, for instance, a hard drive fails; · A hardware upgrade needs to be performed; · A lengthy power outage has occurred and the backup power supply resources have been exhausted; · A beta kernel is being tested (not recommended for production environments). NT can induce this state of failure: · When both IPX/SPX and TCP/IP protocols are used and technicians put a machine with a static IP address on a different subnet; · When some 16-bit Visual Basic applications are not being run in "separate memory space." NT does not run them in separate memory space by default. This is a manual configuration which should be set for each and every 16-bit application on the machine; · Certain brands of memory modules or cache will induce this, even though the same hardware runs fine under other operating systems, such as Windows 95. UNIX does not require a graphical user interface to function. NT does. Anyone knows that graphics require incredible amounts of disk space and memory. The same holds true for sound files, which seem to be so important to the Microsoft operating systems. Microsoft's NT Server 4.0 Enterprise Edition can't hold a candle to the more mature commercial UNIX operating systems. Although not essential to network performance, 64-bit computing is here today with these UNIX operating systems (as opposed to NT's 32-bit operating system). Bibliography:

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