unity, gnome, saucy, Ubuntu, what OS am I using?

Asked by J S h a w h a n

I know I downloaded Ubuntu V14.01 and that's what I "installed " because I'm sick of MS and Windows. but I still have a dool butte so I can look noremal.. lol. anyway, can someone explain the difference between Ubuntu, Unix, Linx, cisco, unity,saucy, gnome, bash, grub, and etc....

I know the basic operating system is Grub for the boot up, then it switches to GRU?
Unix????

ane Ubuntu is just a UI right?

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said :
#1

That's a lot of terms but I will explain and compare to Windows where possible so you get the idea.

Ubuntu is the name of the Linux distribution. It uses the Linux kernel and has applications and all the things built around it to make a full OS. Other distributions are (but are not limited to): Redhat, Mandriva, Knoppix, Suse and Debian.

Ubuntu uses Debian as a base. Lots of distributions are based on Ubuntu like Bodhi linux.

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said :
#2

UNIX is similar to Linux in that it uses a Linux-like kernel and so forth and can have all the same GUI stuff Ubuntu has but it is usually used in servers and routers and is command line only.

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said :
#3

Cisco are a router manufacturer. They also have a home grade branch called Linksys. They use Linux in their products as the base OS with high levels of customization

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said :
#4

Unity is a plugin for the Compiz window manager and gives features like the Dash and Unity launcher down the left as well as a host of other features. Unity (like most things in Linux) is optional. It runs on the Gnome desktop but I believe that it will become it's own desktop later and not need Gnome.

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said :
#5

Saucy is the codename of Ubuntu 13.10 released in 20 (13) in October (the (10)th month). Saucy is not a long term support release and is end of life in July 2014. This is like "Windows XP" its just the name of the release. It is still Ubuntu just as "XP" is Windows. The codenames follow the alphabet so after (s)aucy is (t)rusty then (u)topic. There is a wiki where users can suggest codenames.

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said :
#6

Bash is the (b)ourne (a)gain (sh)ell and is the default interpreter of commands you type in the terminal. The terminal is like cmd.exe in Windows but is more like PowerShell (if you have used that). There are many shells but you will find bash to be quite common. You can write small bash scripts (like batch files in Windows) to perform tasks.

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said :
#7

Grub is the (Gr)and (u)nified (b)ootloader and is first loaded when you boot the system. Grub can chainload other OSes making it great for dual booting. The Windows boot loader is primitive and cannot make non-Windows OSes boot. There are other boot loaders like Lilo and Burg (Burg is very graphical) but getting to grips with Grub is a great skill as a server engineer.

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