I read uses of the word "utilities" for commands/programs such as 'ls', 'chmod', 'mv', etc.
Is "commands" is Linux referring to the same things as top
, ps
, etc., or are those something different? What about "programs"? Are those the ones that don't come with the standard distribution which need to be installed like irssi
, emacs
, kismet
, etc.?
Best Answer
This question is hard to answer, as there is no formal definitions of those terms and different people will use them differently. I here only give my use of them, others will have different points if view.
For me tool and utility are synonyms. I use the words for small programs which just do one small job. I'd call e.g. all applications implemented as applets in busybox tools or utility.
Any application is a program for me. I.e. 'ls' is a tool, a utility and a program. Firefox is a program but I wouldn't call it neither tool nor utility.