From owner-freebsd-newbies Wed Mar 7 11: 5:50 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Received: from odin.acuson.com (odin.acuson.com [157.226.230.71]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8D69937B718 for ; Wed, 7 Mar 2001 11:05:47 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from djohnson@acuson.com) Received: from acuson.com ([157.226.47.12]) by odin.acuson.com (Netscape Messaging Server 3.54) with ESMTP id AAA1711; Wed, 7 Mar 2001 11:10:35 -0800 Message-ID: <3AA68685.C4C290AA@acuson.com> Date: Wed, 07 Mar 2001 11:05:41 -0800 From: David Johnson Organization: Acuson X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en] (X11; U; SunOS 5.5.1 sun4u) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Russell Francis Cc: Super Saijin , freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: About Unix References: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Russell Francis wrote: > >what is a kernel? > > what is a > shell? Here's another way to put it that might help. If you're used to DOS and Windows, and especially Windows-3.1 (a mere 6 years ago), the following correspondences can be made: kernel = msdos.sys shell = command.com gui = windows Even under Windows9x, those elements are still there. Under the typical Unix, the elements look like: kernel = vmlinuz (Linux), genunix (Solaris), kernel (FreeBSD), etc. shell = sh, csh, tcsh, bash, ksh (tcsh and bash are the most popular) gui = X11R6 + window manager + optional desktop As you can see, the Unix world gives you many more options than the DOS/Windows world. Not only do you get to choose your shell and gui elements, you can also customize your kernel. If you're a pessimist it will sound like you get your choice of ropes to hang yourself with. If you're an optimist it will be more like a candy store with something new and tasty every minute. David To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message