Jenny Townes


Week 3 Reading Notes

1. How the material helped
Everyone seems to have their preferences for operating systems and programs. I like Windows simply because I’ve never used anything else. Some people I know who have more experience with different operating systems than I prefer UNIX or linux to Windows or Mac. I didn’t know what UNIX was and often wondered the difference. Now I know that UNIX is often preferred because it will run on many different platforms, what ‘System V’ and ‘BSD’ are, and that the difference between UNIX and linux is that linux is an Intel-based variation of UNIX.

2. What I didn't understand
Everything after the introduction was hard to understand because the tutorial does not explain exactly the differences between UNIX and other operating systems or what constitutes UNIX’s “power, flexibility, and portability.” The intro says that UNIX is an operating system. However, I guess I don’t understand operating systems as well as I thought. The logging in sections seems to indicate that one computer with UNIX installed can talk to any other computer on its network. This is not a function of an operating system with which I’m familiar.
What exactly is the kernel? A group of files or commands? Do all operating systems rely on a kernel or just UNIX? The site doesn’t specify.
Also, what exactly is the shell? The tutorial says ‘the interface used’ but I’m not sure what that means. Do other operating systems use Bourne or C shells?
What is meant by “The special files tend to be executables, and include many of the programs you run. These are typically in certain directories which your environment is set up to see and use.” Does this mean that on a UNIX system I can open MS Word, even if my machine is a Mac?

3. Additional questions