The Unix philosophy in a nutshell
To understand anyone (or anything), one must strive to first understand their (or its) underlying philosophy; to begin to understand Linux is to begin to understand the Unix philosophy. Here, we shall not attempt to delve into every minute detail; rather, an overall understanding of the essentials of the Unix philosophy is our goal. Also, when we use the term Unix, we very much also mean Linux!
The way that software (particularly, tools) is designed, built, and maintained on Unix slowly evolved into what might even be called a pattern that stuck: the Unix design philosophy. At its heart, here are the pillars of the Unix philosophy, design, and architecture:
- Everything is a process; if it’s not a process, it’s a file
- One tool to do one task
- Three standard I/O channel
- Combine tools seamlessly
- Plain text preferred
- CLI, not GUI
- Modular, designed to be repurposed by others
- Provide the mechanism, not the policy
