[LMB] OT: AKICOTL: UbUntu advice

[Mark Allums]

James wrote:
> On 8/27/07, Mark Allums <mark at allums.com> wrote:
>> The plural of UNIX seems to be "Unices".  Unix is often put in all caps
>> for no good reason; it's a false acronym.  The name Unix derives from
>> MULTICS, an early attempt at a universal OS.  Unix does not refer to
>> eunuchs, but in a way it actually does (that would require a whole
>> 'nother conversation to explain).  Many people, particularly Linux
>> users, spell it Un*x, much the same way we spell L*ck*y or W*b*r.
> 
> Actually, it's UNIX(R). 

<snip a lot of good info about Unix>

The provenance of the name of Unix is a bit of a long story, but in
general, UNIX(R) is used primarily to distinguish a standard from any
old generic Unix, and of course, that is entirely the wrong approach.
They shouldn't encourage us to use a generic at all, by being pedantic
about the correctness of the trademarked genuine article.  Especially,
since pretty much the only legit use of the name Unix refers either to
property owned by Novell, or a variant of BSD.  (SCO lost one of the
the lawsuits.)

Linux users are pretty careful not to refer to Linux as "Unix".
Especially, since certain people insist on calling it "GNU/Linux" and
not just "Linux".  The spelling Un*x dates back prior to Linux's
birth/advent, but certainly Linux enthusiasts use it quite often.  In
books, some accommodation is always made to the distinction; often found
in the earlier chapters of the book, a note is made that unless noted
specifically, when the author refers to "Unix" he is referring to either
UNIX(R) or some other Unix-like OS.  I have even seen "Un*x" used in
serious books.

It's still true that UNIX(R) is a false acronym.  The name was picked
partly because the Unix philosophy was (paraphrasing) to do one thing at
a time, and do it well, thus the "uni" part of the name, from the word
"unit".  MULTICS tried to do many things at once, in order to be a
universal computing utility, something like any other utility,
electricity, water, gas, etc.  The choice of "uni" was meant to be a bit
ironic to the implication of universality.

--Mark Allums