[NTLUG:Discuss] On Linux distributions.

[Jeremy Blosser]

Chris Cox [cjcox at acm.org] wrote:
> Charles Jacobus wrote:
> > 
> > What is *ix systems? As one of the Great Unwashed I don't recognise them.
> > Thanks
> > 
> Unix is a trademarked term... so a lot of people use *ix to refer to
> Unix and Unix-work-a-like systems.

To be pedantic, and add a bit more history ;), UNIX is the trademarked term
(all caps).  From the jargon file:

"Some people are confused over whether this word is appropriately `UNIX' or
`Unix'; both forms are common, and used interchangeably. Dennis Ritchie
says that the `UNIX' spelling originally happened in CACM's 1974 paper "The
UNIX Time-Sharing System" because "we had a new typesetter and troff had
just been invented and we were intoxicated by being able to produce small
caps." Later, dmr tried to get the spelling changed to `Unix' in a couple
of Bell Labs papers, on the grounds that the word is not acronymic. He
failed, and eventually (his words) "wimped out" on the issue. So, while the
trademark today is `UNIX', both capitalizations are grounded in ancient
usage; the Jargon File uses `Unix' in deference to dmr's wishes."

-- 
Jeremy Blosser   |   jblosser at firinn.org   |   http://jblosser.firinn.org/
-----------------+-------------------------+------------------------------
the crises posed a question / just beneath the skin
the virtue in my veins replied / that quitters never win