Solaris vs RHEL - UNIX Essential differences
Published 22 Oct 2003
Read time 3 min(s) 4 sec(s) (2271 views).
Solaris
The purpose of this article is to introduce the system and network administration features of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for Solaris Administrators and to describe the differences between the Solaris 9 Operating System and Red Hat Linux with respect to basic tasks and components.
Desktop System Components
Action Solaris RHEL Reference/Comment
Desktop environment
CDE, Gnome, KDE
Gnome, KDE
http://www.gnome.org
http://www.kde.org
Directory browser
dtfile, nautilus
nautilus
Desktop Productivity Suite
StarOffice
OpenOffice
StarOffice is on a seperate CD-Rom
http://www.openoffice.org
Common text editors
vi , pico, emacs , xemacs, vim, geditvim, pico, emacs, xemacs, gedit
Default web browser
Netscape
Mozilla, Konqueror
http://www.mozilla.org
Email clients
Netscape, dtmail, pine, xmh
Mozilla, Evolution, kmail, pine, xmh
Help button
desktop
desktop, man, info
Virtual terminals
alt-F1 through alt-F6
Configure monitor
ffbconfig
redhat-config-xfree86
Dual monitor support
yes
yes
Configure mouse
gnome-mouse-properties
gnome-mouse-properties
Desktop games
yes
yes
CD-ROM
CD-R, CD-RW, DVD
CD-R, CD-RW, DVD
Compilers
gcc, g++, g77
gcc, g++, g77 GCC 3.2
Sun ONE Studio compiler collection available for purchase from Sun (Solaris only).
Developer Suite
Eclipse-based IDE add-on
Sun ONE Studio
Other languages
Perl, Java, Python, Ruby, Tcl/Tk
Perl, Java, Python, PHP, Ruby, Tcl/Tk
JDK software not included in RHEL. Support for Java 1.4.x technology from BEA,IBM or Sun
X-window Manager
metacity
metacity, sawfish
-back to top-
Files and Directories
Action Solaris RHEL Reference/Comment
Determine the file type
file
file
Search for files
find
find, locate, slocate
View contents of a file
cat, more, less, pg
cat, more, less
Rename files
mv
mv, rename
Search for strings in binary file
strings
strings
Search for content in files
grep, egrep, fgrep
grep, egrep, fgrep
Display first few lines of file
head
head
Display last lines of a file
tail
tail
Display line, word, and character counts
wc
wc
Create empty file
touch
touch
touch modifies the time stamp if the file exists.
Remove a file
rm
rm
Create a directory
mkdir
mkdir
Remove a directory
rmdir, rm -r
rmdir, rm -r
Create symbolic links
ln -s
ln -s
Create hard links
ln
ln
Change file access permissions
chmod
chmod
Set default file permissions
umask
umask
-back to top-
User Work Environment
Action Solaris RHEL Reference/Comment
Get current working directory
pwd
pwd
List files and directories
ls, dtfile, nautilus
ls, nautilus
Archive files
tar, jar, pax
tar, jar, pax
Compress files
compress, gzip, zip
compress, gzip, zip, bzip
Uncompress files
uncompress, gunzip, gzip -d, unzip
uncompress, gunzip, gzip -d, unzip, bzip -d
View compressed files
uncompress -c, zcat, gzcat
uncompress -c, zcat
Compress executable files
gzexe
gzexe
Display online documentation
man, info
man, info
User information lookup
finger
finger
Display who is logged in
who
who
Who is logged in to machines on the local network
rusers, rwho
rusers, rwho
Display information about local and remote users
finger
finger
Display a listing of last logged in users
last
last
Switch to another user
su
su
Display the effective UID
whoami
whoami
Display the real UID
who am i
who am i
Display group membership of user
groups
groups
Display real and effective UIDs and GIDs of user
id
id
Change file ownership
chown
chown
Change file group ownership
chgrp
chgrp
Display file or file system status
stat
-back to top-
Additional Resources
The following documenation sources provide detailed information for the Solaris 9 and Red Hat operating systems:
Title Online documentation
Solaris 9 documentation
http://docs.sun.com
Red Hat 9 documentation
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-9-Manual/
Red Hat Enterprise documentation
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/
