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IBM First To Receive UNIX 2003 Certification

Posted by timothy on from the gave-a-party-and-nobody-came dept.

Hobart writes "Last Wednesday, IBM's AIX was the first to receive the UNIX 2003 certification from The Open Group, beating out Sun, HP, SCO and the rest. No mention anywhere in the branded products register of any Linux/BSD distribution, or Mac OS X. Are any companies still developing software to this certification, or requiring it?"

7 of 167 comments (clear)

  1. perfect by OffTheLip · · Score: 5, Funny

    IBM is rivaling Microsoft's uncany knack for aligning their company with revelant dates.

  2. off-brand Unices by tverbeek · · Score: 5, Insightful
    No mention anywhere in the branded products register of any Linux/BSD distribution, or Mac OS X. Are any companies still developing software to this certification, or requiring it?

    I thought it was always strictly a UNIX® thang that was never important to the noncommercial BSDs, Linux, or OS X. That doesn't mean it isn't important to the markets that still rely on it for interoperability.

    --
    http://alternatives.rzero.com/
  3. Standards... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting


    No mention anywhere in the branded products register of any Linux/BSD distribution, or Mac OS X. Are any companies still developing software to this certification, or requiring it?"

    Companies and groups that are truly interested in standards will care and require it. Unfortunately all Linux distributions and BSD projects are not even close to being a Unix certified product. And the BSD families are much closer than Linux.

    MacOSX could be with some cash (which they have lots of) but their target markets aren't hardcore techies, it's graphic designers and iPod buyers.

    1. Re:Standards... by MBCook · · Score: 5, Interesting
      I agree. While Apple is trying to get their machines in the server room (especially for small businesses) and they are nice machines, they are definatly not aimed at the kind of places that would probably demand this certification. I would think this kind of thing would be more apt to be a requirement for large contracts at large companies (Fortune 500 and such), where if they wanted to they would have the resources to work around the bits that are missing from OS X (whatever those are, no idea) if they really cared.

      I don't think Apple would get any real benefit (at least in the short term) from such a certification. They should get into more server rooms first.

      --
      Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
  4. What is the point ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The real question is how much this certification matters, if it appears it doesn't co-exist with POSIX standards.

    As discussed on comp.unix.solaris a few days ago - POSIX specifies (amongst many other things) what various flags passed to uname should produce. AIX (which my collegues and I always referred to as "Aix Ain't Unix" due to it's...ahem...'unique' approach to things) breaks this. So it shouldn't pass strict POSIX conformance testing, yet it passes UNIX03. So, what does this cert mean in reality, given that AIX is one of the most "non-Unixy" systems around anyway ? Who is really going to go for AIX over HP-UX or Solaris just because AIX got a cert ?

  5. slow news day? by jmank88 · · Score: 5, Funny

    you know its a slow news day when the article starts with "Last Wednesday..." -jordan

  6. Open Group "UNIX(TM)" perverted by greed by HighOrbit · · Score: 5, Insightful

    IIRC, the orginal idea behind the UNIX trademark being given to the Open Group was so they would "protect" the UNIX name by making sure that anything calling itself "UNIX" would have to meet certain inter-operability standards. You could only license the UNIX(TM) name if your product met some strict standards.

    That *would* have been a GOOD THING(TM). The problem is they charge mega-$$$ for certification and license royalties. They charge much much more than their costs and reap a huge profit on each certification. This basically freezes out any free/open unix-like system and it also is a barrier to entry for a start-up who would otherwise meet the standard. With a little work, there are few reasons why FreeBSD (for instance) would not be able to meet the standard, but that would require mega-bucks to be handed over to the Open Group and few open source project have that kind of money.

    Cheers to IBM for meeting the standard. Jeers to Open Group for being a bunch of greedy bastards and locking out Free Software.