# Getting Started with Unix ### Unix as an operating system Many applications in bioinformatics and statistical genetics incorporate the use of Unix. The use of Unix as an operating system is important for a few reasons such as * Ease of **building** efficient **pipelines** for your work i.e. awk, bash, piping * Ease of **software installation** and **development** * **Multiple** **versions of a tool** can be installed by the user, just in case an analysis requires an older version of the tool * Many good **scientific tools** (i.e. aligners, samtools) which allow for flexibility in analysis is written in a non-portable way for Unix * **Text editing/viewing tools** (i.e. sort, cut, paste) are memory efficient * Large file sizes are handled in a relatively **more efficient** way compared to Mac OS or Windows. ### Recommended courses to learn about Unix Therefore, the base of the Sandbox is a Unix operating system. The terminal application in the Sandbox is the most basic operator for the Sandbox. There are many courses out there that can allow efficient learning of Unix as a programming tool and operating system. One that we recommend is by Coursera: * Basic Unix: * Primer and application to Unix: [Click here to read more about Unix tools that you can use in Sandbox](https://docs.finngen.fi/working-in-the-sandbox/which-tools-are-available/unix-tools) Click here to see examples on [how to unzip files in the command line](https://docs.finngen.fi/faq/about-sandbox/how-to-unzip-files-in-the-command-line)