OT: Unix or UNIX or unix

[Amedee Van Gasse (Ubuntu)]

On Thu, June 11, 2009 15:29, Derek Broughton wrote:
> Steven Susbauer wrote:
>
>
>> Christopher Chan wrote:
>>
>>>> It wasn't really accurate in numerous places.  I used SCO Unix on
>>>> an intel platform, a pc, in 1991.  That was UNIX.  It ran fine on a
>>>> standard PC that would normally run windows.  The real difference
>>>> between Linux and Unix is that Unix is a trademarked name and you
>>>> have to pay and pass a certification to use the name.  In all other
>>>> respects Linux is Unix.
>
> Well, no.  There's a completely different attitude to kernel design.
> Linux came from Minix, not Unix.

Well, no.
Linux was created because the author of Minix (professor Andrew S.
Tanenbaum) intentionally didn't want to add requested features. Linux was
created from scratch, although Minix was used as staging platform: to
compile Linux, until it reached version 0.01 and Linux was able to
recompile itself.

Minix uses a microkernel; Linux uses a monolithical kernel.
If Linus Torvalds would have been one of Andy Tanenbaum's students,
Tanenbaum wouldn't have given him good grades.
See also the (in)famous Linus-Tanenbaum discussion, it's easy to find.
The rest is history... ;-)