[TUHS] UNIX or unix

[TUHS] UNIX or unix

[Nemo Nusquam]

I was reading the comments on Hackaday on UNIX at 50 
(https://hackaday.com/2019/11/05/will-the-real-unix-please-stand-up/). 
As expected, a lot of manure but some interesting comments from 
seemingly knowledgeable people.

One comment 
(https://hackaday.com/2019/11/05/will-the-real-unix-please-stand-up/#comment-6192977), 
from a DDS, stated that (s)he worked at The Bell and they wrote it 
"unix" (lower-case) to distinguish it from MULTICS.  Anyone care to 
comment on this?

N.

Re: [TUHS] UNIX or unix

[Paco López]

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An excerpt 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.

at: http://catb.org/jargon/html/U/Unix.html

El sáb., 9 nov. 2019 a las 17:28, Nemo Nusquam (<cym224@gmail.com>)
escribió:

> I was reading the comments on Hackaday on UNIX at 50
> (https://hackaday.com/2019/11/05/will-the-real-unix-please-stand-up/).
> As expected, a lot of manure but some interesting comments from
> seemingly knowledgeable people.
>
> One comment
> (
> https://hackaday.com/2019/11/05/will-the-real-unix-please-stand-up/#comment-6192977),
>
> from a DDS, stated that (s)he worked at The Bell and they wrote it
> "unix" (lower-case) to distinguish it from MULTICS.  Anyone care to
> comment on this?
>
> N.
>

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Re: [TUHS] UNIX or unix

[Derrik Walker v2.0]

On 11/9/19 12:20 PM, Nemo Nusquam wrote:
> I was reading the comments on Hackaday on UNIX at 50 
> (https://hackaday.com/2019/11/05/will-the-real-unix-please-stand-up/). 
> As expected, a lot of manure but some interesting comments from 
> seemingly knowledgeable people.
>
> One comment 
> (https://hackaday.com/2019/11/05/will-the-real-unix-please-stand-up/#comment-6192977), 
> from a DDS, stated that (s)he worked at The Bell and they wrote it 
> "unix" (lower-case) to distinguish it from MULTICS.  Anyone care to 
> comment on this?
>
> N.

It was always my understanding, based totally on hearsay from engineers 
from both Sun and SGI back in my early days with it, UNIX is the OS, 
while unix, or vmunix is the kernel. Unix was deprecated by the time it 
became a real commercial product.

So, right or wrong, I've always used UNIX for the OS, and unix, or 
vmunix as appropriate, to refer to the kernel.

- Derrik

-- 


Derrik Walker v2.0
dwalker@doomd.net
https://www.doomd.net

"Those UNIX guys, they think weird!" -- John C. Dvorak

Re: [TUHS] UNIX or unix

[Mary Ann Horton]

I just finished Brian Kernighan's book (excellent!) and he addresses 
this in section 7.6. (Yes, he wrote the book in troff.)

He prefers "Unix" and wrote it that way except for this section. He says 
"Bell Labs' legal guardians decided that the name Unix was a valuable 
trademark that had to be protected..." Legal mostly required it to be 
used as an adjective "The UNIX TM operating system", and how the ms 
macros produced a small caps "UNIX" (and a footnote on the first 
reference). He's clear that the 1127 folks hated the requirements from 
legal.

It is true that the file which contains the kernel was /unix, or /vmunix 
for Berkeley Unix, but that's the name of the file, not the proper name 
of the operating system for English prose.  By convention, virtually all 
Unix files were in lower case.

     Mary Ann

On 11/9/19 12:36 PM, Derrik Walker v2.0 wrote:
> On 11/9/19 12:20 PM, Nemo Nusquam wrote:
>> I was reading the comments on Hackaday on UNIX at 50 
>> (https://hackaday.com/2019/11/05/will-the-real-unix-please-stand-up/). 
>> As expected, a lot of manure but some interesting comments from 
>> seemingly knowledgeable people.
>>
>> One comment 
>> (https://hackaday.com/2019/11/05/will-the-real-unix-please-stand-up/#comment-6192977), 
>> from a DDS, stated that (s)he worked at The Bell and they wrote it 
>> "unix" (lower-case) to distinguish it from MULTICS.  Anyone care to 
>> comment on this?
>>
>> N.
>
> It was always my understanding, based totally on hearsay from 
> engineers from both Sun and SGI back in my early days with it, UNIX is 
> the OS, while unix, or vmunix is the kernel. Unix was deprecated by 
> the time it became a real commercial product.
>
> So, right or wrong, I've always used UNIX for the OS, and unix, or 
> vmunix as appropriate, to refer to the kernel.
>
> - Derrik
>

Re: [TUHS] UNIX or unix

[Clem Cole]

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In fact ATT legal had a document they sent to all commercial licensees
around 1980 on proper use of the name.  I wonder if I still have/can find a
copy.  But the lawyers were pretty clear. It was UNIX with ™ and later the
R with a circle around beside the all caps letters after they registered
it.

It was that letter that started all the names like Xenix, Ultrix, HP-UX,
SunOS, RTU etc.

On Sat, Nov 9, 2019 at 4:06 PM Mary Ann Horton <mah@mhorton.net> wrote:

> I just finished Brian Kernighan's book (excellent!) and he addresses
> this in section 7.6. (Yes, he wrote the book in troff.)
>
> He prefers "Unix" and wrote it that way except for this section. He says
> "Bell Labs' legal guardians decided that the name Unix was a valuable
> trademark that had to be protected..." Legal mostly required it to be
> used as an adjective "The UNIX TM operating system", and how the ms
> macros produced a small caps "UNIX" (and a footnote on the first
> reference). He's clear that the 1127 folks hated the requirements from
> legal.
>
> It is true that the file which contains the kernel was /unix, or /vmunix
> for Berkeley Unix, but that's the name of the file, not the proper name
> of the operating system for English prose.  By convention, virtually all
> Unix files were in lower case.
>
>      Mary Ann
>
> On 11/9/19 12:36 PM, Derrik Walker v2.0 wrote:
> > On 11/9/19 12:20 PM, Nemo Nusquam wrote:
> >> I was reading the comments on Hackaday on UNIX at 50
> >> (https://hackaday.com/2019/11/05/will-the-real-unix-please-stand-up/).
> >> As expected, a lot of manure but some interesting comments from
> >> seemingly knowledgeable people.
> >>
> >> One comment
> >> (
> https://hackaday.com/2019/11/05/will-the-real-unix-please-stand-up/#comment-6192977),
>
> >> from a DDS, stated that (s)he worked at The Bell and they wrote it
> >> "unix" (lower-case) to distinguish it from MULTICS.  Anyone care to
> >> comment on this?
> >>
> >> N.
> >
> > It was always my understanding, based totally on hearsay from
> > engineers from both Sun and SGI back in my early days with it, UNIX is
> > the OS, while unix, or vmunix is the kernel. Unix was deprecated by
> > the time it became a real commercial product.
> >
> > So, right or wrong, I've always used UNIX for the OS, and unix, or
> > vmunix as appropriate, to refer to the kernel.
> >
> > - Derrik
> >
>
-- 
Sent from a handheld expect more typos than usual

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Re: [TUHS] UNIX or unix

[Steve Johnson]

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I remember a story I heard second hand.   The Bell System had so
many acronyms that they published  yearly a small book with all the
acronyms in the Bell System.   Somebody (Ken?, Doug?) got a call one
year that they wanted to include UNIX in the book, so would we please
tell them what UNIX stood for.   The reply was that UNIX was not an
acronym.  So the caller said: "OK.  We won't put it in the book..."

Steve

----- Original Message -----
From: "Clem Cole" <clemc@ccc.com>
To:"Mary Ann Horton" <mah@mhorton.net>
Cc:<tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org>
Sent:Sat, 9 Nov 2019 16:23:04 -0500
Subject:Re: [TUHS] UNIX or unix

In fact ATT legal had a document they sent to all commercial licensees
around 1980 on proper use of the name.  I wonder if I still have/can
find a copy.  But the lawyers were pretty clear. It was UNIX with ™
and later the R with a circle around beside the all caps letters after
they registered it.  

It was that letter that started all the names like Xenix, Ultrix,
HP-UX, SunOS, RTU etc.   

On Sat, Nov 9, 2019 at 4:06 PM Mary Ann Horton <mah@mhorton.net [1]>
wrote:
I just finished Brian Kernighan's book (excellent!) and he addresses 
 this in section 7.6. (Yes, he wrote the book in troff.)

 He prefers "Unix" and wrote it that way except for this section. He
says 
 "Bell Labs' legal guardians decided that the name Unix was a valuable

 trademark that had to be protected..." Legal mostly required it to be

 used as an adjective "The UNIX TM operating system", and how the ms 
 macros produced a small caps "UNIX" (and a footnote on the first 
 reference). He's clear that the 1127 folks hated the requirements
from 
 legal.

 It is true that the file which contains the kernel was /unix, or
/vmunix 
 for Berkeley Unix, but that's the name of the file, not the proper
name 
 of the operating system for English prose.  By convention, virtually
all 
 Unix files were in lower case.

      Mary Ann

 On 11/9/19 12:36 PM, Derrik Walker v2.0 wrote:
 > On 11/9/19 12:20 PM, Nemo Nusquam wrote:
 >> I was reading the comments on Hackaday on UNIX at 50 
 >>
(https://hackaday.com/2019/11/05/will-the-real-unix-please-stand-up/
[2]). 
 >> As expected, a lot of manure but some interesting comments from 
 >> seemingly knowledgeable people.
 >>
 >> One comment 
 >>
(https://hackaday.com/2019/11/05/will-the-real-unix-please-stand-up/#comment-6192977
[3]), 
 >> from a DDS, stated that (s)he worked at The Bell and they wrote it

 >> "unix" (lower-case) to distinguish it from MULTICS.  Anyone care
to 
 >> comment on this?
 >>
 >> N.
 >
 > It was always my understanding, based totally on hearsay from 
 > engineers from both Sun and SGI back in my early days with it, UNIX
is 
 > the OS, while unix, or vmunix is the kernel. Unix was deprecated by

 > the time it became a real commercial product.
 >
 > So, right or wrong, I've always used UNIX for the OS, and unix, or 
 > vmunix as appropriate, to refer to the kernel.
 >
 > - Derrik
 >
-- 
Sent from a handheld expect more typos than usual 

Links:
------
[1] mailto:mah@mhorton.net
[2]
https://hackaday.com/2019/11/05/will-the-real-unix-please-stand-up/
[3]
https://hackaday.com/2019/11/05/will-the-real-unix-please-stand-up/#comment-6192977


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Re: [TUHS] UNIX or unix

[Dr Iain Maoileoin]

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> On 10 Nov 2019, at 00:07, Steve Johnson <scj@yaccman.com> wrote:
> 
> I remember a story I heard second hand.   The Bell System had so many acronyms that they published  yearly a small book with all the acronyms in the Bell System.   Somebody (Ken?, Doug?) got a call one year that they wanted to include UNIX in the book, so would we please tell them what UNIX stood for.   The reply was that UNIX was not an acronym.  So the caller said: "OK.  We won't put it in the book..."
> 
> Steve
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Clem Cole" <clemc@ccc.com>
> To:"Mary Ann Horton" <mah@mhorton.net>
> Cc:<tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org>
> Sent:Sat, 9 Nov 2019 16:23:04 -0500
> Subject:Re: [TUHS] UNIX or unix
> 
> 
> In fact ATT legal had a document they sent to all commercial licensees around 1980 on proper use of the name.  I wonder if I still have/can find a copy.  But the lawyers were pretty clear. It was UNIX with ™ and later the R with a circle around beside the all caps letters after they registered it.  
I was not just commercial licensees.  I remember seeing a copy of that letter.  We were a Scottish University who had a legit tape sent from AT&T/Bell Labs for academic use.

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Re: [TUHS] UNIX or unix

[Dave Horsfall]

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On Mon, 11 Nov 2019, Dr Iain Maoileoin wrote:

[ UNIX (tm) (R) ]

> I was not just commercial licensees.  I remember seeing a copy of that
> letter.  We were a Scottish University who had a legit tape sent from
> AT&T/Bell Labs for academic use.

I saw the same thing at the University of New South Wales back when
[Uu][Nn][Ii][Xx] <random symbols> was first released.

-- Dave

Re: [TUHS] UNIX or unix

[Noel Chiappa]

    > From: Nemo Nusquam

    > One comment .. stated that (s)he worked at The Bell and they wrote it
    > "unix" (lower-case) to distinguish it from MULTICS. Anyone care to
    > comment on this?

All the original Multics hardcopy documentation I have (both from GE and MIT,
as well as later material from Honeywell) spells it 'Multics'. Conversely, an
original V6 UPM spells it 'UNIX'; I think it switched to 'Unix' around the
time of V7. (I don't know about _really_ early, like on the PDP-7.)

The bit about case to differentiate _might_ be right.

	Noel