General information repositories
UNIX programming
FTP sites full of UNIX stuff
FTP search engines
W3 search engines
UNIX on the UseNet (NetNews)
The general hierarchy for UNIX newsgroups is comp.unix.*.
The three generally most important probably are:
There are a lot of other UNIX newsgroups, like vendor specific ones
(e.g. comp.unix.sco.announce, comp.unix.aix), for particular architectures
(comp.unix.amiga, comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit etc.) and of specific flavours
(comp.unix.bsd.*, comp.unix.sys5.*). Some newsgroups are not for the
uninitiated (like comp.unix.internals, or comp.unix.wizards, which is
moderated anyway). comp.unix.questions is a good start.
Please note that each of the larger UNIX newsgroups maintains a FAQ
(list of frequently asked questions) which provide extremely valuable
material in a compact form (sometimes better than any book). Even the
gurus read FAQs and so should you. It is generally considered very
impolite and stupid to ask questions in a newsgroup that are covered by
the FAQ. FAQs are posted regularly and can be obtained from archives.
UNIX distributors
Unix is a heterogenous family of operating systems. Unix comes as commercial
operating systems, usually for high-end workstations and servers, or as freely
distributable systems, usually with full source code, where the original
(hacker-like) spirit of UNIX is somewhat preserved (but which are often a
match for their commercial counterparts).
- The NetBSD Project
NetBSD is a
multi-platform derivate of the Berkeley Net/2 and 4.4BSD-Lite distributions.
NetBSD is freely distributable and comes with source code.
- OpenBSD splitted off from NetBSD
with the aim to make the system even more secure and incorporate improvements
from other systems faster.
- The FreeBSD Project
FreeBSD is
the state-of-the-art (free) BSD UNIX for the x86 architecture.
- BSDI's BSD/OS
The commercial
BSD UNIX for x86. Resembles the free BSD systems in many ways (light, fast,
yet powerful and versatile) but is sold with support and commercial server
solutions.
- GNU/Linux is a UNIX look-alike,
comes in various different distributions, some of which are commercial.
- AIX is IBM's commercial
UNIX shipped with the RS/6000 workstation family.
- Solaris is Sun's commercial
SVR4 implementation, for Sparc workstations and x86 computers.
- Digital UNIX (formerly OSF/1)
is DEC's commercial UNIX, available for their Alpha AXP architecture. (Now
linked to Tru64)
- SCO, now owner of the USL/AT∧T-UNIX
source, sells USL/Novell-based UNIX.
-
Hewlett Packard's HP-UX runs on HP9000 workstations.
-
IRIX is the operating system for SiliconGraphics workstations.
- Plan 9 actually isn't a UNIX
system, but since it comes from the folks who wrote the original UNIX,
it is for sure an interesting operating system with quite a lot of UNIX
heritage.
-
CMU MACH kernel
MACH isn't a UNIX system either but is the basis for interesting UNIX kernel
developments. The DEC UNIX kernel is build on MACH (as well as the GNU Hurd,
NextStep/OpenStep, Apple's forthcoming Rhapsody and IBM's OS/2 for the RS/6000).
4.4BSD uses the MACH virtual memory management.
-
Lots of other UNIX systems exist. Best have a look at Yahoo yourself.
Organizations
UNIX fun
Taken and extended from the former #UNIX Website
Dead Links
Anyone knows where this information has gone?
- http://www.emerson.emory.edu/services/unixhelp1.2/Pages/TOP_.html
UNIXhelp for Users, tutorial for using the UNIX operating system,
strongly recommended for every new user to UNIX.
- http://k12.colostate.edu/workshop/unix/unix.html
The UNIX operating system, another introduction to the UNIX system
- http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/csg/unix/
CSG UNIX guides
- http://www.amdahl.com/internet/events/unix25.html
UNIX 25th Anniversary
Maintained by Juraj Lutter written in 
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