Where are you downloading a UNIX from? Most likely, it's pirated, and I would not fool with it. UNIX systems normally cost mucho $$$, and finding it for free (with the exception of Sun's Free Solaris binary program) is probably not legal.

But, let me clear up a few misconceptions. There are different versions of UNIX and Linux. Under UNIX, Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, Unixware, and OpenServer are some examples. For Linux, Slackware, Red Hat, Debian, and Mandrake are some there. You could just about buy any of the Linux distributions that I listed, but I've downloaded them all (legally, for free), run them, and I don't feel like I've missed anything buy not having bought the version. However, I have bought distros in the past, because I've wanted to support open source causes.

That's really all it boils down to-- if you like it, pay some money for it to keep the authors going. Many of them don't ask for donations, but I'm sure they wouldn't turn them away.

Even for a newbie, as long as your willing to read some directions you could handle gentoo

Linux download site:

www.linuxiso.org


Which particular flavor of Linux you choose is really up to you; everyone who uses Linux has their own opinion on that one.

what are the major differences between unix and linux?

As Alex mentioned, most versions of UNIX cost big bucks, while most versions of Linux can be downloaded for no cost or disks can be purchased for very little cost.

You are free to copy and share your Linux disks with as many people as you wish, and/or install Linux on as many computers as you wish.

Because it is quickly becoming a poplular "desktop" operating system, Linux has a much broader range of support for the numerous hardware devices (of the sort that the average user might want to have on their system) than does UNIX.

Bugs, security holes, etc. tend to get fixed much faster than do those in commercial operating systems, including UNIX.

There are slight variations in command syntax, filesystem structures, and other "under the hood" elements of the two operating systems, but the differences aren't generally large enough really call them differences.

Thanks, that was an excellant web adress for the different linux to download. I am going to research on a few and download one. This site should be visited by anyone interested in downloading a version of linux. Thanks again!!

dont forget to md5sum the packages after download to make sure that they are all good downloads or you may end up wasint money on blank cd's only to find out that file you downloaded was bad.

Your're welcome; glad we could help.

In terms of K_T's suggestion of verifying the MD5sums- that's a very good idea, regardless of which version of Linux you download (or which site you download it from). The MD5sums program will verify that your iso images didn't get corrupted during the download. The linuxiso.org site I linked to has more info on the MD5sums program and its usage.

Where has this website been all my life!?! Thanks for sharing it. What a 1 stop shopping site that is. Any particular favorite you'd recommend? I like Mandrake the best, but I've really only tried Red Hat and Mandrake. I currently use Mandrake 10 and have used it since version 6 I believe.

Tim Cummings