5 ms·

Why people use Linux in place of *nix ? Even worst, most of the tools (cat, grep, awk) are Unix commands, redeveloped by the GNU project in most of the GNULinu

Why people use Linux in place of *nix ? Even worst, most of the tools (cat, grep, awk) are Unix commands, redeveloped by the GNU project in most of the GNULinux distros.

umanwizard 7y ago
Yep. And the vast majority of these tools exist on systems that share virtually zero heritage with Linux or GNU. (Like macOS). Oh well, I guess a lot of people just think all Unix-like systems are called “Linux” now. Perhaps it’s become like the word “Kleenex”.
TsiCClawOfLight 7y ago
To be fair, in many cases (such as grep), the GNU commands have additional features and are more intuitive to use than the standard POSIX implementations.
goatinaboat 7y ago
Speaking of GNU there’s Datamash https://www.gnu.org/software/datamash/ https://www.gnu.org/software/datamash/ if you like doing “data science” in the shell
clarry 7y ago
> Why people use Linux in place of nix ? I find it more irritating when people try to score greybeard points by saying *nix (or Unix) when it's obvious that they're talking about a Linux-only mechanism and quite possibly haven't ever used Unix (or a direct derivative).
- umanwizard 7y ago
  Huh? What is specific to Linux in this post? Also, the most popular Unix-like OS (far more than Linux) is macOS, basically the least “leet greybeard affectation” thing I can imagine. Your irritation is way off base.
  - clarry 7y ago
    > Huh? What is specific to Linux in this post? Perhaps nothing? I was responding to the complaint in general terms. > Your irritation is way off base. Please allow me to feel irritated when people refer to obvious Linux things as something that's supposedly got something to do with Unix. It happens often enough.
    - umanwizard 7y ago
      Fair enough; I suppose it’d be annoying for people to talk about “the Unix concept of cgroup namespaces” or something like that. I had thought that you were directly responding to the original poster.
  - drran 7y ago
    Most popular Unix-like OS on consumer devices is Linux (Android). Most popular Unix-like OS on servers is Linux. Most popular Unix-like OS in embedded is Linux. Most popular Unix-like OS on supercomputers is Linux. Most popular Unix-like OS on IBM PC compatible computers or notebooks is MS Windows with WSL. Most popular Unix-like OS on MacBooks is MacOS.
    - umanwizard 7y ago
      Android is not a Unix-like OS, other than having a kernel that was originally devised as a Unix clone. Beyond that, I’m not sure what your point is. Is it just that “most popular” is ill-defined? To bring us back to the context of this post: I am quite willing to bet that “grep” and “cat” are used by humans more times per day on macOS than on any other OS.
- gnufx 7y ago
  Linux is a kernel, which is irrelevant; I've run the GNU tools on many different systems, including MS-DOS, over the years. POSIX now defines UNIX anyway.

Why people use Linux in place of *nix ? Even worst, most of the tools (cat, grep, awk) are Unix commands, redeveloped by the GNU project in most of the GNULinux distros.

umanwizard 7y ago

Yep. And the vast majority of these tools exist on systems that share virtually zero heritage with Linux or GNU. (Like macOS). Oh well, I guess a lot of people just think all Unix-like systems are called “Linux” now. Perhaps it’s become like the word “Kleenex”.

TsiCClawOfLight 7y ago

To be fair, in many cases (such as grep), the GNU commands have additional features and are more intuitive to use than the standard POSIX implementations.

goatinaboat 7y ago

Speaking of GNU there’s Datamash https://www.gnu.org/software/datamash/ https://www.gnu.org/software/datamash/ if you like doing “data science” in the shell

clarry 7y ago

> Why people use Linux in place of nix ? I find it more irritating when people try to score greybeard points by saying *nix (or Unix) when it's obvious that they're talking about a Linux-only mechanism and quite possibly haven't ever used Unix (or a direct derivative).

umanwizard 7y ago
Huh? What is specific to Linux in this post? Also, the most popular Unix-like OS (far more than Linux) is macOS, basically the least “leet greybeard affectation” thing I can imagine. Your irritation is way off base.
- clarry 7y ago
  > Huh? What is specific to Linux in this post? Perhaps nothing? I was responding to the complaint in general terms. > Your irritation is way off base. Please allow me to feel irritated when people refer to obvious Linux things as something that's supposedly got something to do with Unix. It happens often enough.
  - umanwizard 7y ago
    Fair enough; I suppose it’d be annoying for people to talk about “the Unix concept of cgroup namespaces” or something like that. I had thought that you were directly responding to the original poster.
- drran 7y ago
  Most popular Unix-like OS on consumer devices is Linux (Android). Most popular Unix-like OS on servers is Linux. Most popular Unix-like OS in embedded is Linux. Most popular Unix-like OS on supercomputers is Linux. Most popular Unix-like OS on IBM PC compatible computers or notebooks is MS Windows with WSL. Most popular Unix-like OS on MacBooks is MacOS.
  - umanwizard 7y ago
    Android is not a Unix-like OS, other than having a kernel that was originally devised as a Unix clone. Beyond that, I’m not sure what your point is. Is it just that “most popular” is ill-defined? To bring us back to the context of this post: I am quite willing to bet that “grep” and “cat” are used by humans more times per day on macOS than on any other OS.
gnufx 7y ago
Linux is a kernel, which is irrelevant; I've run the GNU tools on many different systems, including MS-DOS, over the years. POSIX now defines UNIX anyway.