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Date:      Sat, 12 Jun 2004 10:01:47 -0400
From:      "Lucas Holt" <Luke@FoolishGames.com>
To:        "'Grauwmans Steven'" <steven@grauwmans.be>, <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Subject:   RE: What's the big difference between Linux and Unix??
Message-ID:  <200406121402.i5CE2Aaj037453@adsl-68-76-19-75.dsl.klmzmi.ameritech.net>
In-Reply-To: <000001c45054$39e06a20$5f7fa551@gezin>

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This is a hard one to answer.  Most people disagree slightly on this
question.  It all depends on your perspective.  If you go by companies that
are allowed to use the UNIX copyright, then only IBM AIX and Sun Solaris are
UNIX.  If you go by the posix specification, then most operating systems can
be considered UNIX as many implement portions of the posix specification if
not all of it.  Even windows NT/2k/XP have a posix subsystem.  (not unix
though as they don't have a userland remotely close)  I used to get real gun
ho on the idea that *BSD is older than GNU/Linux.  That was false in one
sense.  The linux kernel is actually older than the *BSD code that all BSDs
are based on.  The reason is that most of the BSD kernel was rewritten and
implemented AFTER the first public linux kernel release.  So on one hand
only system V implementations contain any original UNIX code. (aside from a
small portion that was considered ok during the lawsuit)  I'm sure several
others will disagree with me, but this is what I've learned from websites
and part of an O'reilly book on the history of open source.  I forget the
exact title.  

Also, I don't think a true linux fan would consider linux as UNIX.  The
reason is the title.. GNU/Linux is the proper name and if you lookup what
GNU stands for, you'll see my point. :)

As for SCO, I don't think they have much claim over linux code.  They might
not even own the UNIX code as Novell claims.  Either way, SCO UNIX was based
on Microsoft Unix (Xenix?) so I laugh at the idea anyway.  

To summarize, it depends how you interpret the *facts*.  I don't think
anyone really remembers all the details anymore.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
[mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org] On Behalf Of Grauwmans Steven
Sent: Saturday, June 12, 2004 4:07 AM
To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject: What's the big difference between Linux and Unix??

Linux is UNIX, but why is Fedora Core a Linux and FreeBSD a UNIX?
I searched on the internet for an answer, but after visiting 10 sites I gave
up.
If U could please help me, I'm getting confused.
 
Greetings,
Grauwmans Steven
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