Date: Thu, 25 Feb 1999 18:40:00 +1000 From: Greg Black <gjb@comkey.com.au> To: Gregory Sutter <gsutter@pobox.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Generic Unix term? Message-ID: <19990225084000.27895.qmail@alpha.comkey.com.au> In-Reply-To: <19990224155800.O27934@orcrist.mediacity.com> of Wed, 24 Feb 1999 15:58:00 PST References: <19990223200542.L27934@orcrist.mediacity.com> <19990224175048.A10277@austin.rr.com> <19990224155800.O27934@orcrist.mediacity.com>
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> > --> There's BSD, Linux, AIX, SCO, Solaris, Citrix, etc, but is there a > > --> single, non-copyrighted, non-trademarked term describing all systems > > --> that are based on or function like Unix? > > > > I have seen *nix used a lot. BTW isn't Citrix an NT vendor a la winframe?? > > *nix isn't a word, though. I am looking for something that can be > spoken as well as written, and "Starnix" or "Asterisknix" just doesn't > cut it. There is a perfectly good word: Unix. It doesn't describe any actual product now (since the products all have names like the ones in the list above), and it can't seriously be claimed to belong to anybody any longer (although I'm certain that some noddies somewhere think they "own" it). For my money, Unix is a fine generic term that describes a whole family of OSes either directly derived from the work of Thomson and Ritchie and Co or based on the ideas they originated. Naturally, if you're looking for some term that can be used in some situation where legal niceties might matter, then you'll have to wrap it up in some fluff like "Unix-like" ... -- Greg Black <gjb@acm.org> To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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