What is UNIX? Re: ls -A

[Peter da Silva]

In <17118 at rpp386.cactus.org> John F Haugh offers the argument that anything
that isn't SVID and hasn't passed the SVVS is not UNIX.

Well, John, in a legal sense you're right. Legally AT&T can destroy
your company if you publish an advertisement claiming that your BSD-
based system is UNIX. Or your Xenix-based one.

In practical terms, however (and I hope we're practical here) it's more
useful to use a wider definition of UNIX. After all, 10 years ago the
latest version of UNIX was version 7. It certainly isn't SVID, and will
in no way pass the SVVS. In a couple of years the latest version of
System V will be so mutated that current SVID systems will no longer
qualify. 

I doubt if anyone (other than AT&T Marketing types) who stops to think
about it will have any difficulty dealing with UNIX as being any system
that can trace its lineage back to AT&T.

Many of us are willing to use that term to describe anything that can
provide a programmer interface that's "close enough" to the 7th edition.
-- 
Peter da Silva, *NIX support guy @ Ferranti International Controls Corporation.
Biz: peter at ficc.uu.net, +1 713 274 5180. Fun: peter at sugar.hackercorp.com. `-_-'
                                                                           'U`
Quote: Structured Programming is a discipline -- not a straitjacket.