Subject: UNIX

From: Tov <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 1997 01:20:28 -0800

Any one know what the hell UNIX stands for ???  trying to settle a bet,
please respond if you can help.     thank you,  Chris

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From: "R. Stewart Ellis" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 1997 09:07:44 -0500 (EST)

On Fri, 28 Feb 1997, Tov wrote:

> Date: Fri, 28 Feb 1997 01:20:28 -0800
> From: Tov <[email-masked]>
> To: [email-masked], [email-masked],
>     [email-masked], [email-masked]
> Subject: UNIX
> 

Although all caps usually indicates an acronym, as near as I have been able
to tell in 12 years of working with UNIX is that this is an exception.  I
have frequently heard that it is a pun on Multics, a very overweight
computer operating system involving a number of companies in the late
1960's, at a time when time-sharing was generally unavailable.  AT&T was one
of the companies, although the lead company was GE, which later sold its
computer division to Honeywell (part of the "thundering HURD"?).  A handful
of computer scientists at AT&T wanted to keep the intimate time-sharing
environment they had developed for Multics, and finagled, filched and
whatever else was necessary to get a DEC PDP-7 to develop it on.  In a 1984
article in the AT&T Bell Labs Technical Journal special issue on The UNIX
System, Dennis Ritchie, one of those men, authoritatively states: "Brian
Kernighan suggested the name 'UNIX,' in a somewhat treacherous pun on
'Multics'...." (p. 1580).

  R.Stewart(Stew) Ellis, Assoc.Prof., (Off)810-762-9765   ___________________
  Humanities & Social Science,  GMI Eng.& Mgmt.Inst. ()  /   _____  ______
  Flint, MI 48504    Free speech and free software!  /\ /        / /  /  / /
  Web admin:  http://www.gmi.edu/      [email-masked]   /________/ /  /  / /

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From: Andrew Le <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 1997 10:18:34 -0800 (PST)

UNIX was a variation on MULTIX, I think..

> please respond if you can help.     thank you,  Chris

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From: Tony Iannotti <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 1997 14:59:09 -0500 (EST)

> UNIX was a variation on MULTIX, I think..

I think it was MULTICS, an old time-sharing project from Bell, GE, and
CMI(?). UNIX was going to be more of a single-user version, but grew.

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From: Shoeless in San Jose <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 1997 19:53:54 -0800 (PST)

> please respond if you can help.     thank you,  Chris

Universal Nerd Information eXchange?  ;)