On Thursday, October 7, 2010, hard wyrd <[email protected]> wrote: > "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.
If you want to get technical, Apple Mac OS X uses the Darwin operating system, which is an environment pioneered by NeXT Computer. Both use the "Mach" kernel, which is a very flexible microkernel which powers both Mac OS X (Darwin) and the iOS (Darwin as well). Darwin uses a *lot* of FreeBSD software (with some Apple modifications, most of which are freely available on the Apple Open-Source SVN server.) I don't exactly remember the lineage of Mach, but that's what life is like inside the walled garden. Hope some find that little bit of pendantry interesting. :) > 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. Nope, you were spot on. Just to add my $0.02, I refer to things that pass Open-Group certification as a "Unix," and all else (Linux) as "Unix-like." -- Registered Linux Addict #431495 For Faith and Family! | John 3:16! http://www.fsdev.net/ -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Linux Users Group. To post a message, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit our group at http://groups.google.com/group/linuxusersgroup
