Starting in 1969 as a yet-to-be-named operating system developed by a handful of AT&T employees for a DEC PDP-7 minicomputer. During the 70s and 80s, the academic circles had their influence on Unix and eventually led to the BSD variant of the OS originating from UC, Berkeley. Designed to be portable with multi-tasking and multi-user capabilities, there are a few concepts that characterize a Unix system like plain text data storage, a hierarchical file syste, and a large number of software tools. Together, these concepts are dubbed Unix Philosophy.

With servers and workstations and their operating systems becoming more and more complicated, it’s interesting to go back and see how it all started with something so (relatively) simple. For a complete 40-year timeline of Unix, please visit this article.

*Only systems fully compliant with and certified to the Single UNIX Specification are qualified to use the UNIX trademark; others are called Unix system-like or Unix-like.

Ubuntu has released its lastest version codenamed “Jaunty Jackalope”. I usually tend to wait for Autumn releases of Ubuntu, however I decided to join the band wagon and see what all the fuss is about.

In previous versions of Ubuntu it was pretty difficult to see the changes between the different versions. Usually the changes were made to the kernel or a tweak that went visually unnoticed. However with Jaunty Jackalope the look and feel has been polished, and the speed at which the new OS operates feels to have been given a new boost.

Download yourself a copy here!

With the growth of SaaS (Software as a Service) useful applications on the go have been more prevalent and much more abundant. Who needs a laptop, and a locally installed application, not “I” said  the bear! 

Web-centric apps like Gliffy.com allow you to kick Microsoft Visio’s butt on the go, and in style! 

 Sign up for a free 30-day trial here!