Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2001 20:41:13 -0700 (PDT) From: Eric De Mund <ead@ixian.com> To: Chern Lee <chern@meow.osd.bsdi.com> Cc: <freebsd-doc@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: UNIX vs Unix Message-ID: <15187.46041.478486.392939@idiom.com> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.31.0107161348180.71896-200000@meow.osd.bsdi.com> References: <Pine.BSF.4.31.0107161348180.71896-200000@meow.osd.bsdi.com>
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Chern, ] According to O'Reilly's word list: ] Unix (UNIX in many books, esp. older ones) ] UNIX appears about 10 to 1 to Unix in the handbook. At first, I ] resorted to changing all instances of Unix to UNIX to make our ] document more standard, but then realized Unix looks a lot more ] aesthetically pleasing. ] According to O'Reilly, are we a new document or an old book? ] Attached is a patch changing all relevant instances of Unix -> UNIX. ] I'd like it the other way around. ] ] Ideas? As an aside, if you're wishing to say that FreeBSD *is* UNIX/Unix, I believe you need to be aware of and not run afoul of trademarks. IANAL, yet I believe that stating what FreeBSD is derived from rather than what it is is another, less tricky (in the legal domain, at least) matter. Who do Wind River's attorneys say own the trademarks `UNIX' and `Unix'? On to the main point. My short answer is, "I believe `UNIX' rather than `Unix' is correct." My other short answer is, "`UNIX' probably predates `Unix' by only a little bit, months if not weeks, as both were used back in New Jersey in 1969-1970, so you can probably just pick one and stick with it." Here's my longer answer. If correctness is defined as the capitalization originally used at AT&T in 1969-1970, I believe "UNIX" is correct.
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