Download History of Unix OS - Seneca

Agenda
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Overview of UNIX
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Purpose of an Operating System (OS)
History of Unix OS
Characteristics of Unix OS
History of Linux OS
The Drive for compatibility (POSIX
standards)
Attention
These PowerPoint notes are based on
Chapter 1 of textbook “A Practical Guide
to Linux”
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Read pages 3 to 17
Definition of an Operating
System (OS)
An operating system is a control
program for a computer that performs
the following operations:
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allocates computer resources
schedules routine tasks
provides a platform to run application
software for users to accomplish tasks
provides an interface between the user &
the computer
History of Unix OS
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Prior to Unix, many operating systems ran
collections or “batches” of operations one at
a time.
This single-user “batch-processing”
approach did not take advantage of the
potential processing power and speed of
computers
Enter data in
files to be later
processed
Process
Collection or
“Batch” of files
Receive
information of
processed data
Note: batch processing lacks the advantage of
immediate feedback as opposed to online processing
History of Unix OS
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The Unix OS was developed (based on
Multics & CTSS operating systems) by Ken
Thompson at the AT&T Bell Laboratories in
1969. He wanted to create a multi-user
operating system to run “space travel” game.
Ken’s philosophy was to create an operating
system with commands or “utilities” that
would do one thing well (i.e. UNIX). Pipes
could be used combine commands...
History of Unix OS
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The first versions of UNIX were written
in “machine-dependent” programs
(such as PDP-7).
Ken Thompson approach Dennis Ritchie
(developer of C language), and in 1973
they compiled UNIX in C programming
language to make operating system
“portable” to other computer systems.
History of Unix
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Ken Thompson
(recently retired
from Bell Labs)
is on left, and
Dennis Ritchie is
in the middle.
What’s his name
is on the right…
UNIX Features
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The Unix OS is a multi-user OS allowing more
than one person to directly communicate with
the computer.
Although the OS can only work on one task at
a time, a small piece of time (time slice) is
dedicated to each task or user - this is
referred to as “time-sharing”.
Time sharing gives the illusion that the CPU is
giving all the users its full attention
Illustration of
Time-Sharing
User 8
User 1
User 7
User 2
User 6
User 3
User 5
User 4
TIME
Development of Unix OS
Unix became a popular OS among institutions
such as colleges & universities through a 4year “try before you buy” deal.
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Efficient and inexpensive way of networking
Promotes Internet use and file-sharing
Open system allows for source code to be shared
among many programmers - allows for better
coordination among programmers
Development of Unix OS
Students at University of California (in
Berkley) further developed the UNIX
operating system and introduced the
BSD version of Unix
Unix
Bell Labs
UNIX System V (5)
Proprietary
Berkley Software Distribution
(BSD)
Free
Development of Unix OS
There were versions of UNIX for the
Personal Computer (PC), such as
XENIX, etc., but they didn’t catch on in
popularity until Linux was developed in
the early 90’s.
History of Linux
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Linux operating system
developed by
programming student
Linus Torvalds
Linus wanted to develop
Unix-like OS just to
experiment with new
386 computer at the
time...
Why Has Linux Become so
Popular?
Linus decided to make Linux OS
source-code for Linux Kernel open to all:
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Unlike traditional Operating Systems, anyone can
modify and distribute Linux OS (as long as they
distribute source code of Linux Kernel)
“Competition among Hackers” allows code to be
improved and distributed often
Many users can spot bugs in the operating system
or application if source code is “open”
Why Has Linux Become so
Popular?
Other Factors:
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PC’s have increased processing power and there
has been a shift from mainframes and
minicomputers to PCs.
Since Linux is a “Unix Work-alike”, this OS has a
reputation of being a very stable platform for
networking (creating at-home servers) and
running / maintaining applications.
Agencies such as Free Software Foundation
created the GNU project to provide free software.
Concerns
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Some people claim that “there are as many
version of Linux as there are users…”
POSIX (Portable Operating System Interface
for Computer Environments) is a government
standard to ensure consistency among
different UNIX and Linux versions.
Many versions of Linux are approaching
POSIX standard.
Concerns
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Freedom of allowing Linux users to create
“servers” connected up to Internet can lead
to attacks from experienced hackers.
Linux commands may be considered “userunfriendly” although GUIs are now used.
Prior reputation for difficult install process
including the loss of data on other hard disk
partitions.