a few newbie questions

#1. From all the reading I have done (several books. online ho-to's) Linux and Unix seem to be about the same, everything referres to Unix, What is the difference?

#2. Is it possable to DL and print out the sorce code for the Linux kernal, If so, where. Preferably in PDF format.

#3. If you havn't figured it out, I am verry new to linux, so this might sound verry stupid. What is it that makes linux incompatable with most windows applications? Win32 API? couldn't someone write a prog to emulate that?

#4. The command line seems to be the heart of linux's power and control, Is there an online referance of all commands and functions

Stealth said:

#1. From all the reading I have done (several books. online ho-to's) Linux and Unix seem to be about the same, everything referres to Unix, What is the difference?

#2. Is it possable to DL and print out the sorce code for the Linux kernal, If so, where. Preferably in PDF format.

#3. If you havn't figured it out, I am verry new to linux, so this might sound verry stupid. What is it that makes linux incompatable with most windows applications? Win32 API? couldn't someone write a prog to emulate that?

#4. The command line seems to be the heart of linux's power and control, Is there an online referance of all commands and functions

Click to expand...

1. Linux initially was written as a free imitation of Unix. Currently there are free Unixes (FreeBSD, netBSD, etc) which provide some competition to Linux on the desktop. They look a lot like Linux and most of the software is compatible, but there are differences (like the license, for example) and it's really a matter of taste whether you use linux of *BSD.
2. Yes, the source is availible from www.kernel.org but it is not something you would want to print out since it is more than 50 megabytes of text
3. There is a program that does just that, called wine. However, wine is still in the early stages (although it has been under heavy development for several years) and it is far from perfect.
4. There is extensive built-in help, called manpages. By typing "man command" on the command line, you can get plenty of information on that command. And there's always www.linuxdoc.org

1. To the user there is little difference. They both use the same command line shell (or can use the same shells) and they both can use the X windows system for a GUI.

4. You can also find info pages for some commands and there is masses of online docs (try www.linuxdoc.org)

David