Too many to count, and more being created all the time..
A Unix filter is a command pattern that allows the output of one command to be "piped" into the input of the next command. Commands like 'ls' which list a directory are not filters since they only generate output. Filter examples are grep, sed, sort, uniq, awk. Commands in Unix are usually filters unless they only create output, like 'ls', 'vi', etc.
You can view the content of any file (text or not) in Unix by using any editor or filter or pager program, such as 'less', 'more', 'cat', 'vi', etc.
Linux, Minix, Coherent, FreeBSD, etc. These are all clones of Unix
GNU/Linux is a 'Unix-like' operating system because it was based on Unix, and is similar in many ways.
There is no the system file. There are many files necessary to create a working Unix system.
As many as you want.
It is possible to use BSD software on Unix systems. It is possible but many do not and they use other softwares on Unix systems beside the BSD software.
There are many mail clients available for Unix. These include mutt, fetchmail, getmail, and pine.
Unix and windows are two separate groups of operating systems. Windows is the operating system of about 90% of personal computers, while unix is the basis of many other operating systems, such as Mac OS X
Unix in really an umbrella term for a whole category of operating systems that may share some similar code-base. Originally developed in the late 70's by Bell labs, Unix has been forked and re-factored many times by many companies. BSD is a fork of the original Unix system that is currently maintained by Berkley State University, CA. Other Unix forks come from SCO, Oracle, and a few others. On another note, Linux is a free software alternative to Unix, but shares none of the original code.
There are many editors available in Unix, and they all have different methods of exiting out. You need to specify exactly which editor you are concerned with.
There are too many to list here. Try looking on Amazon for Unix Security and you will receive a large list of them.