UNIX is a copyrighted name, and only big companies are allowed to use the UNIX copyright and name. For example, Apple macOS, IBM AIX, and Sun/Oracle Solaris and HP-UX all are UNIX operating systems. The Open Group holds the UNIX trademark in trust for the industry and manages the UNIX trademark licensing program. Let us see difference between Linux and UNIX OS in this quick tutorial.
Difference Between Linux and UNIX
Most UNIX systems are commercial in nature. You need to pay for support, software, training, and more. On the other hand, the Linux kernel is free to download and install on your systems free of cost.
Linux is a UNIX Clone
But if you consider Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX) standards, then Linux can be considered as UNIX. To quote from Official Linux kernel README file:
Linux is a Unix clone written from scratch by Linus Torvalds with assistance from a loosely-knit team of hackers across the Net. It aims towards POSIX compliance.
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However, “Open Group” does not approve of the construction “Unix-like” and considers it a misuse of their UNIX trademark.
Linux is just a kernel
Linux is just a kernel. All Linux distributions includes GUI system + GNU utilities (such as cp, mv, ls,date, bash and more) + installation management tools + GNU c/c++ compilers + Editors (vi/ed/nano) + and various applications (such as OpenOffice, Firefox). However, most UNIX operating systems are considered as a complete operating system as everything come from a single source or vendor.
As I said earlier, Linux is just a kernel, and Linux distribution makes it complete usable operating systems by adding various applications. Most UNIX operating systems come with A-Z programs such as editor, compilers, and more. For example, HP-UX or Solaris comes with A-Z programs.