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The Spirit Of Unix vs. The Unix Trademark
BSD Forums writes "This article conveys the message that Linux, BSD, and Darwin continue what Unix started. InfoWorld's Tom Yager says that several readers took him to task for referring to Linux, BSD, and OS X as Unix. He feels that Unix has a rich legacy that deserves to be preserved and accurately conveyed to new generations of computer scientists. It rattles many of us to see that the operating systems that best exemplify Unix traditions today aren't Unix at all."
It's not one any more, it's a happy variety of dialects. So why not call it Multics? After all, that's where it started...
they really are just unix.
so... GNU's Not Unix/Unix?
Heh, seems a little contradictory.
Would that become "GNU's Not One"?
It's not even a trademark in the real sense -- do you even know who owns the word now? Nobody cares. For the record, the Unix trademark is owned by The Open Group (opengroup.org).
I here I was thinking SCO owned UNIX.
They told me they did!!
I love the smell of Karma in the morning
The origin of the name Linux - "line Unix", because it introduced the terminal concepts and the notion of command line. This allowed powerful commands like 'ls' and 'cd'. Prior to that Unix was all clicking on icons, and hence quite easy to use.
Better yet:
X.I.N.U
Xinu
Is
Not
Unix
Halb
we need an "-1 Plain wrong" moderation option!
It amazes me that Slashbots can criticize players like Microsoft for ignoring standards when it suits them, then turn around and do exactly the same thing themselves.
But at the same time, don't assume that every poster has an identical anti-MS, pro-liberal-use-of-the-term-Unix stance. Nothing in the parent post mentions Microsoft and standards, so while your point about standards is well made, throwing in the term 'Slashbots' hardly works toward establishing the rational and reasoned Slashdot I'm sure you (and most of us) would prefer. Though rereading the latter half of that sentence does make me wonder if I might be delerious this morning.
Whenever something like this comes I like to refer people to this excellent USENET posting (I guess I should point to google's archive but...)
,
:)
From: o r c @ p e l l . p o r t l a n d . o r . u s (david parsons)
Subject: Re: NT causes $10M loss [Was Uptime Discussion]
Date: 14 Apr 1998 13:22:18 -0700
Organization: Department of Atomic Test Units
Lines: 12
In article
Kaz Kylheku wrote:
>In any case, I doubt that V7 UNIX could actually pass today's
>UNIX branding. It's only called UNIX for historical reasons.
>Strictly speaking, it's an operating system formerly known as UNIX.
I think the phrase you're looking for is `Posix can go fuck itself'.
____
david parsons \bi/ Standardization run amuk.
\/
...with an advertisement at the bottom of the article: --- Unisys Wehavethewayout.com join the escape from unix. the windows datacenter is here. JOIN US.> --- As if.
Beep Beep Beep.. Like, dude think different!
Use the new I-KY Jelly!
Dude ... put some creamer in your coffee ... you're way too bitter.
Oh he means whaling dutch, the dialect spoken by dutch whalers largely before the 19th century. that's why you've never seen it before. it was crucial to the operations of all whaleships in fact to have a tree based operating system.
Or is there another kind of Dutch that I'm not aware of?
Yes, a dialect called Trolkrapp It is spoken only on Slashdot, and in some seedier bars in parts of Belgium.
All those comments about the proper and/or incorrect use of the word UNIX, yet not one spelling it properlly.
;-)
"UNIX® is a registered trademark" and should be spelled in all caps.
Thank you