[ale] Difference between UNIX'es

[Glenn C. Lasher Jr.]

I like this response, it is detailed, and gets deeply into the
philosophical matters of difference between Linux and other Unices.  I
appreciate the point that Jeff is trying to make about Linux not being a
variant/subset/superset of UNIX, however, although the philosophies and
actual guts differ, Linux is essentially the product of
reverse-engineering UNIX, and I consider it to be a flavour of unix (small
u) when put together with all of the GNU goodies.

More to the point, however, I think that Kalin might have been more
interested in the practical at-the-keyboard differences, in which case, I
would be inclined to say that I have used a large array of unices (my geek
code contains 'ULAVH+++$' for those who understand geek code) and I find
that in actual practice, Linux is the easiest of the OS's to operate, what
with the incoropration of command line completion, editing and recall.  I
sorely miss these features when working with the DEC^H^H^HCompaq servers
at work.  Linux is far superior to any other unix flavour with which I
have worked.  

It is also smaller.  I have been able to make practical use of a cast off
'386 with 4MB of proprietary RAM (ergo, upgrades are impossible) and a 200
MB HDD.  Not only does it work, it works well, and it is reasonably quick.
I use it for a banger box (it is luggable) when making roadtrips, because
unlike a laptop, you can't kill the thing!  It only makes sense that a
machine of that ruggednes should have an operating system that is equally
rugged, n'est-ce pas?

It is also the only decent flavour of unix I can afford to have on my home
machine.... exclusively.  I don't do Windows.  What other operating system
offers itself, with a decent-sized user community, in the under $100
range, and thus frees you from Bill the Gates?


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