A comparison between operating systems

What is an Operating system?

Every computing system runs on a software that is needed and optimized as per the performance needs of the user and the capabilities of the system. Hence, an operating system is required by the system, which would run hardware and software as per the choice of the user, and perform a host of services for it. Over the years, various operating systems are developed by different IT companies around the world. While some offer fancy functions and can perform a wide variety of tasks, others are limited to essential functions and are intended for core functions only.

UNIX

UNIX is a command based multiuser operating software conceptualized by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie in the 1960s and subsequently developed by them in the 1970s at the Bell Labs, now known as AT&T labs. Initially, it was to be used within the Bell labs. But in the late 1970s, AT&T started licensing the software to other companies, like Sun Microsystems, who developed their versions of it by adding or enhancing some features (Pradhan, 2019). Unix systems were very much popular and widely used in the 1980s and early 1990s, as they were commercially and industrially used by many.

Linux

Linux is an open-source operating system that behaves very much like a UNIX system and is based on the Linux kernel.  Linux was developed by Linus Torvalds, a Finnish-American software engineer who wrote the Linux kernel. The prototype of Linux was launched in 1991, and in March 1994, Linux version 1 was released. The Linux kernel wrote by Torvalds can also be used as a basis to develop further operating systems, which are known as Linux Distributions

(Raza & Qazi, 2017). One such widely used Linux distribution is the Ubuntu software, which is used in laptops and selected smartphones.

Comparison-UNIX and Linux

There are many differences between UNIX and Linux. The basic difference is the pricing. UNIX OS can be priced as per its specifications and usage, whereas Linux OS is free software, which could be downloaded through third-party websites and other sources.  Linux is an open-sourced Operating system. Multiple users can contribute and collaborate for their development. On the other hand, UNIX and its version are developed by programmers at AT&T.

Linux can have broad usage by home developers, private users, business people, and others (Tsai et al.,2016). while UNIX can only be used by personnel working with internet servers, workstations, and PCs, Linux is portable and can be transferred to other systems using flash drives. In contrast, UNIX is not portable and transferring takes up a considerable amount of time. The source code of Linux is made available to the general public for free. UNIX, on the other hand, has kept its source code a secret and has not made it public.

Conclusion

Every operating system available commercially today comes with its own set of pros and cons. It is up to the user to choose their OS depending on their need, type of work, system configuration, and other criteria. It can be noted that every OS have their area of usage, and hence using improper OS can lead to various problems, including system failure, loss of data, programming errors, and others.