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“*nix” means a Unix-like OS just generally (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%2Anix http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%2Anix), like for example in “Minix” and “Xenix”. S
by layer8 10mo ago
“*nix” means a Unix-like OS just generally (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%2Anix http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%2Anix), like for example in “Minix” and “Xenix”. Sticking “OS” to the end of an OS name is also commonplace. However, the title on the page is “The Learnix Operating System”, so the actual name seems to be just “Learnix”.
It’s arguably Nix and NixOS who have unnecessarily stepped into the “*nix” namespace without adding a distinguishing prefix.
- otabdeveloper4 10mo ago> “*nix” means a Unix-like OS just generally "Unix-like OS" isn't a thing that has existed for two decades. Only Linux and Darwin survived, so don't do the "*nix" thing, please.
- onestay42 10mo agoBSD would like a word.
- wasting_time 10mo agoThey can't be heard over the faint booing from the Solaris crowd.
- yjftsjthsd-h 10mo agoFor that matter, if we're including the proprietary OSs, HP-UX is still kinda a thing and AIX is going strong. Of course, IIRC those are actual certified UNIX™ instead of unix-like... though I'd call that a subset, so still in scope IMO.
- riffraff 10mo agoTIL AIX is still in development and they had a release this month https://community.ibm.com/community/user/blogs/sanket-rathi1/2025/12/05/ibm-aix-73-tl4-features https://community.ibm.com/community/user/blogs/sanket-rathi1...
- otabdeveloper4 10mo agoWe don't talk about BSD here.
- yjftsjthsd-h 10mo agoIllumos is still actively developed, open source, and can trace its lineage back to actual unix. For that matter, we've had new members joining the family over the years; https://www.redox-os.org/ https://www.redox-os.org/ is, in their own words, "a complete Unix-like microkernel-based operating system written in Rust, with a focus on security, reliability and safety."
- nineteen999 10mo agoNot to mention that Version 4 UNIX source code was just released!
- yjftsjthsd-h 10mo agoWell, yes, but that's not exactly a modern OS, just historically interesting.
- johnisgood 10mo agoFor anyone wondering, OpenSolaris -> illumos (e.g. OpenIndiana). Good times!
- devnonymous 10mo agoBefore clicking the links.. How confident do you feel about your assertion? https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=Unix%20like&hl=en https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=... https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=Unix%20like%20OS&hl=en https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=Unix%20l...
- otabdeveloper4 10mo agoVery confident. The people who do the "*nix" cargo cult thing have never seen a SunOS machine and don't even know what a HPUX is.
- devnonymous 10mo agoThe linked trends suggest a revival of the term though. > The people who do the "*nix" cargo cult thing have never seen a SunOS machine and don't even know what a HPUX is. The meaning of words evolve over time though. Text is still broken into lines by "carriage return/line feeds" and is written on "hard disk" split up in "sectors".,. Over time people using these would not have seen a typewriter or even know what a platter is but may still use it to communicate effectively.
- wpm 10mo agoDarwin is not UNIX (nor is XNU). But macOS technically is certified UNIX.
- someguyiguess 10mo agoXNU literally stands for “X is Not Unix”
- xboxnolifes 10mo agoThen I guess the OS part is redundant, since thr nix already implies an OS.
- bheadmaster 10mo agoNo, actually Nix is a package manager/system configuration tool. NixOS uses Nix as part of its image.
- xboxnolifes 10mo agoNo, nix clearly means a Unix-like OS and any other interpretation is wrong, as the context of this thread would suggest.
- bigyabai 10mo agohttps://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/homonym https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/homonym
- deleted 10mo ago[deleted]
- ZenoArrow 10mo agoSo your argument is the first usage of a word gets exclusive rights to it? Firstly, that's not how human languages work. Secondly, this would invalidate the Unix claim to "nix" as it's been a word for hundreds of years prior to Unix being invented.
- johannes1234321 10mo agoIt is, but in IT context the association was strong, while Unixes decline and most of the systems with derived naming are historic. But anybody with a background in sysadmin for more than 10 years probably would still have the association. In ten years Linux will probably the only one remaining with the ux-naming (and MacOS X with the single X, which also serves as ten, following MacOS 9)