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4.4 KiB
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32 lines
4.4 KiB
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>Unix</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../U.html" title="U"/><link rel="previous" href="uninteresting.html" title="uninteresting"/><link rel="next" href="Unix-brain-damage.html" title="Unix brain damage"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">Unix</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="uninteresting.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">U</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="Unix-brain-damage.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="Unix"/><dt xmlns="" id="Unix"><b>Unix</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="pronunciation">/yoo´niks/</span>, <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> [In the authors' words, “<span class="quote">A weak pun on Multics</span>”; very
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early on it was “<span class="quote">UNICS</span>”] (also “<span class="quote">UNIX</span>”) An
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interactive timesharing system invented in 1969 by Ken Thompson after Bell
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Labs left the Multics project, originally so he could play games on his
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scavenged PDP-7. Dennis Ritchie, the inventor of C, is considered a
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co-author of the system. The turning point in Unix's history came when it
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was reimplemented almost entirely in C during 1972—1974, making it
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the first source-portable OS. Unix subsequently underwent mutations and
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expansions at the hands of many different people, resulting in a uniquely
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flexible and developer-friendly environment. By 1991, Unix had become the
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most widely used multiuser general-purpose operating system in the world
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— and since 1996 the variant called <a href="../L/Linux.html"><i class="glossterm">Linux</i></a> has
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been at the cutting edge of the <a href="../O/open-source.html"><i class="glossterm">open source</i></a>
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movement. Many people consider the success of Unix the most important
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victory yet of hackerdom over industry opposition (but see <a href="Unix-weenie.html"><i class="glossterm">Unix
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weenie</i></a> and <a href="Unix-conspiracy.html"><i class="glossterm">Unix conspiracy</i></a> for an
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opposing point of view). See <a href="../V/Version-7.html"><i class="glossterm">Version 7</i></a>,
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<a href="../B/BSD.html"><i class="glossterm">BSD</i></a>, <a href="../L/Linux.html"><i class="glossterm">Linux</i></a>.</p><div class="mediaobject"><a id="ritchiethompson"/><img src="../graphics/richiethompson.jpg"/><div class="caption"><p>Archetypal hackers ken (left) and dmr (right).</p></div></div><p>Some people are confused over whether this word is appropriately
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‘UNIX’ or ‘Unix’; both forms are common, and used
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interchangeably. Dennis Ritchie says that the ‘UNIX’ spelling
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originally happened in CACM's 1974 paper <i class="citetitle">The UNIX Time-Sharing
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System</i> because “<span class="quote">we had a new typesetter and
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<a href="../T/troff.html"><i class="glossterm">troff</i></a> had just been invented and we were intoxicated
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by being able to produce small caps.</span>” Later, dmr tried to get the
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spelling changed to ‘Unix’ in a couple of Bell Labs papers, on
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the grounds that the word is not acronymic. He failed, and eventually (his
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words) “<span class="quote">wimped out</span>” on the issue. So, while the trademark
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today is ‘UNIX’, both capitalizations are grounded in ancient
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usage; the Jargon File uses ‘Unix’ in deference to dmr's
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wishes.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="uninteresting.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../U.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="Unix-brain-damage.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">uninteresting </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> Unix brain damage</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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