On Wed, 14 Apr 2004 14:34:09 -0400, Sam Steingold wrote in <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
>This is confusing. >Unix is a class of OSes. >Linux is an instance of that class. >The syntax of your sentence implies that, when you say Unix, you mean >an instance, not the class. Which instance? SCO UNIX? AIX? Solaris? >HP-UX? Apparently SCO (the others do not have `Unix' in the name). Linux is not an instance of Unix, but rather a Unix-like kernel/OS distribution, originally conceived as a clone of Minix with a decent filesystem[1]. Nobody in his right mind would call Minix a Unix, would it? It is a clone, plain and simple, in the same sense that QNX can look and feel like plain vanilla Unix. Now... Free/Open/NetBSD *are* Unix because the kernels in them share a common origin in the BSD 4.4 Net tape, which itself originated as modifications of ATT System 7 and System V source code licensed to UCB (the history is far more convoluted, but you get the picture). [1] > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Linus Benedict Torvalds) > Newsgroups: comp.os.minix > Subject: What would you like to see most in minix? > Date: 25 Aug 91 20:57:08 GMT > > > Hello everybody out there using minix - > > I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and > professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing > since april, and is starting to get ready. I'd like any feedback on > things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat > (same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons) > among other things). > > I've currently ported bash(1.08) and gcc(1.40), and things seem to work. > This implies that I'll get something practical within a few months, and > I'd like to know what features most people would want. Any suggestions > are welcome, but I won't promise I'll implement them :-) > > Linus ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) > > PS. Yes - it's free of any minix code, and it has a multi-threaded fs. > It is NOT protable (uses 386 task switching etc), and it probably never > will support anything other than AT-harddisks, as that's all I have :-(. -- Alejandro López-Valencia http://dradul.tripod.com/ The limits of my language are the limits of my world. (L. Wittgenstein) -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/
