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Subject:Re: UNIX or Unix? From:Helen Hegelheimer <hxh -at- FORMTEK -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 31 Oct 1995 21:23:19 -0500
I agree - just a little trivia to support all the "Unix" voters...this
is from "UNIX UNBOUND by Harley Hahn, Osborne McGraw-Hill ISBN 0-07-882050-2
"In the 1960s, a number of researches at Bell Labs worked at MIT on a project
called Multics, and early time-sharing operating system.....The name "Multics"
was an acronym for "Multiplexed Information and Computer Service".
By the late 1960's, the management at Bell Labs decided not to pursue
Multics. In 1969, Ken Thompson, developed a simple, small operating
system for PDP-7 minicomputer. In searching for a name, Thompson
compared his new system to Multics.
Thompson's system was smaller, less ambitious and was used by one person at a
time. Thompson decided to name his system Unics (the "uni" meaning "one",
as in unicycle), which was soon changed to Unix. In other words, the name
Unix is a pun on the name Multics."
In deference to the books copyright and the internet, I quoted only part
of what is printed in the book.
Helen Hegelheimer
Formtek, Inc. Palo Alto, CA
hxh -at- formtek -dot- com
> Betsy,
> For what it's worth, I prefer "Unix" because the letters do not
> stand for words and because successions of capital letters are
> rarely satisfactorily kerned.
<snip>
> Robert
