"Real" Unix refers to the original Unix operating system that was developed by Ken Thompson<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Thompson_(computer_programmer)> , Dennis Ritchie <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Ritchie>, Brian Kernighan <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Kernighan>, Douglas McIlroy<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_McIlroy>, and Joe Ossanna <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Ossanna> .
Any direct descendant from Unix is still considered "real" Unix which includes, but is not limited to, BSD Unix, Unix System V, Solaris, and others. Mac OS X is a descendant and relied heavily on the BSD Unix core albeit differing slightly. In other words, Mac OS X's kernel only differs slightly to the BSD and original Unix parents. Linux (the kernel) on the other hand, despite behaving and functioning like Unix, is not a "real" direct descendant since it was coded from the ground up by Linus Torvalds and continues to this day with Linus at the helm with the help of the various kernel hackers all over the world. However, Linux is considered a "Unix variant in spirit and function". Since I'm not a native English speaker, I may be wrong with semantics - "variant" and "derivative" - but you get the drill. On Fri, Oct 8, 2010 at 2:04 AM, Mike <hotelsamu...@gmail.com> wrote: > Somewhere in this group, in a discussion of another topic, someone > referred to BSD as "a bona fide UNIX". I have seen debates over > whether OS X is or is not "real" UNIX. I have also heard people say > that "Linux is not really UNIX". I do not want to inflame a dormant > holy war, but what does "real" mean in this context? > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Linux Users > Group. > To post a message, send email to linuxusersgroup@googlegroups.com > To unsubscribe, send email to linuxusersgroup-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > For more options, visit our group at > http://groups.google.com/group/linuxusersgroup -- ------------------------------------------------------------- "Penguin, penguin, and more penguin !" www.madforubuntu.com baudizm.blogsome.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Linux Users Group. To post a message, send email to linuxusersgroup@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe, send email to linuxusersgroup-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit our group at http://groups.google.com/group/linuxusersgroup
