[TUHS] UNIX or unix

Derrik Walker v2.0 dwalker at doomd.net
Sun Nov 10 06:36:06 AEST 2019


On 11/9/19 12:20 PM, Nemo Nusquam wrote:
> I was reading the comments on Hackaday on UNIX at 50 
> (https://hackaday.com/2019/11/05/will-the-real-unix-please-stand-up/). 
> As expected, a lot of manure but some interesting comments from 
> seemingly knowledgeable people.
>
> One comment 
> (https://hackaday.com/2019/11/05/will-the-real-unix-please-stand-up/#comment-6192977), 
> from a DDS, stated that (s)he worked at The Bell and they wrote it 
> "unix" (lower-case) to distinguish it from MULTICS.  Anyone care to 
> comment on this?
>
> N.

It was always my understanding, based totally on hearsay from engineers 
from both Sun and SGI back in my early days with it, UNIX is the OS, 
while unix, or vmunix is the kernel. Unix was deprecated by the time it 
became a real commercial product.

So, right or wrong, I've always used UNIX for the OS, and unix, or 
vmunix as appropriate, to refer to the kernel.

- Derrik

-- 


Derrik Walker v2.0
dwalker at doomd.net
https://www.doomd.net

"Those UNIX guys, they think weird!" -- John C. Dvorak



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