*BSD News Article 38879


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From: jkh@whisker.hubbard.ie (Jordan K. Hubbard)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.misc
Subject: Re: Is *BSD Unix? (was: Re: Is FreeBSD free?)
Date: 04 Dec 1994 00:18:38 GMT
Organization: Jordan Hubbard
Lines: 27
Message-ID: <JKH.94Dec4001838@whisker.hubbard.ie>
References: <1994Dec2.034142.18344@mcshub.dcss.mcmaster.ca>
	<3bn21t$qn6@orion.cc.andrews.edu>
	<1994Dec3.084230.18858@durie.wanganui.gen.nz>
NNTP-Posting-Host: whisker.hubbard.ie
In-reply-to: liam@durie.wanganui.gen.nz's message of Sat, 3 Dec 1994 08:42:30 GMT

In article <1994Dec3.084230.18858@durie.wanganui.gen.nz> liam@durie.wanganui.gen.nz (Liam Greenwood) writes:

   This is true.  Are any of the freely distributable BSD based 
   systems Unix?  The manner in which you put the comment caused

No.  There have been occasional claims to the contrary, either
implictly due to ignorance or typos that neglected to spell "UNIX" in
the more time honored "UN*X" to denote "UNIX-like", or explictly by
people who don't really know what the hell "UNIX" means these
days.

To call yourself UNIX requires a brand by X/Open.  This brand not only
requires strict adherence to a set of "standards" but also costs a
significant chunk of change (around $10,000 last I checked).

None of the "Free UN*X's" are going to be going down this route
anytime soon, to my knowledge anyway.  I don't think that an X/Open
brand would buy us a lot with our current user base(s), and for the
corporate arena for whom it *would* matter, we'd need to provide a lot
more than the brand to make it truly attractive to them.

All cost items, and we don't have any money! :-)

					Jordan

--
Jordan K. Hubbard	FreeBSD core team	Clams are your friends