Maybe there is such a thing as a free lunch – when it comes to computer programs, at least. Linux, a clone of commercial UNIX operating systems, allows users to run off any number of software programs ...

In the intricate landscape of operating systems, two prominent players have shaped the digital realm for decades: UNIX and Linux. While these two systems might seem similar at first glance, a deeper ...

The default behavior of ping on Linux and other Unix-like systems is different from Windows. On Windows, the ping command ...

When attackers take advantage of an exploit, one of their first goals is to gain superuser (root or administrator) access to the compromised system. If the compromised process is already running with ...

There are many ways to move files between Unix and Windows. In my mind, they fall into three categories — secure copy (let’s not even think about ftp), shared drives, and file synchronization. Each ...

What operating system do you use? For some, that question may as well be posed in Latin or Sanskrit. For others, it’s an invitation to have a heated debate about the benefits of GUI vs. command line, ...

Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie at a PDP-11. Peter Hamer [CC BY-SA 2.0] Last week the computing world celebrated an important anniversary: the UNIX operating system turned 50 years old. What was ...

Forty years ago this summer, a programmer sat down and knocked out in one month what would become one of the most important pieces of software ever created. In August 1969, Ken Thompson, a programmer ...