What is UNIX

Unix is a computer operating system. UNIX controls how the computer talks to peripherals like

• Keyboards Monitors Printers Disk Drives other computers, and
• programs.

What makes UNIX different from other operating systems is Multi-User - more than one person can use the computer at the same time

• Multi-Tasking - A single user can run more than one program at the same time.
• Protected Memory - If a program crashes, it does not shut down the entire machine, it only affects the part of memory the program was using when it crashed. Because of this, UNIX systems are more reliable than Macs or PCs. They can go months without rebooting. Although CMGM and PMGM are rebooted about once a week just to clean up any problems that may be hanging around.

Although many different computers can run UNIX, there are slight differences between the different versions of UNIX, for example, Silicon Graphics UNIX is called IRIX, PMGM runs Solaris, and CMGM runs the SUNOS version of UNIX.

Programs that are written for one version of the operating system will not run on computers with a different version of UNIX.