Return to BSD News archive
Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!uunet!in2.uu.net!199.0.154.56!ais.net!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!panix!news.panix.com!not-for-mail From: tls@panix.com (Thor Lancelot Simon) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.misc Subject: Re: question Date: 28 Mar 1997 18:30:38 -0500 Organization: Panix Lines: 68 Message-ID: <5hhkau$jn@panix2.panix.com> References: <333B573E.294B@ecs.school.net.hk> <5hhhkl$6mm@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu> Reply-To: tls@rek.tjls.com NNTP-Posting-Host: panix2.panix.com X-Newsposter: trn 4.0-test55 (26 Feb 97) Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.misc:2899 In article <5hhhkl$6mm@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu>, eric richard haszlakiewicz <haszlaki@students.uiuc.edu> wrote: >Alex Wu (nausica@ecs.school.net.hk) wrote: >: Anyone would tell me the difference between Netware & Unix ? >: Also , what is Linux ? > > Unix is the general OS idea which includes processes + multiprocessing, >memory protection schemes so processes don't trample on each other, networking This isn't quite right. I think you mean either "multitasking" or "multiprogramming", not "multiprocessing". Some versions of Unix do run on multiprocessor machines, but that's hardly an essential feature of the operating system. Strrictly speaking, Unix is a trademark of X/OPEN for operating system software. You can call yourself "Unix" if you pass X/OPEN's (lousy, every-useless-feature-under-the-sun) XPG4 test -- or if you retain the right to call yourself "Unix" because your operating system is a licensed version of the original Unix operating system from Bell Labs. >and many other features. Netware is a version of it from Novell (I think). No. Netware is a proprietary operating system developed by Novell for their network fileserver product; it's not like Unix at all. Novell did *own* USL once, and planned to move away from their proprietary operating system and to Unix. Unfortunately they... well, blew it. Unixware (with its extensive Novell server and client support) was the fruit of this temporary union. >Along with others like SunOs/Solaris, IRIX, etc..., it is a commercial unix. No, it isn't. >Linux is a free version of unix based on System V. Other free unices include No, it is not. Linux is not "a version of Unix", nor is it "based on System V". If it were, it couldn't be given away for free. >FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD which are based on the berkley version of unix. >(The 'B' in BSD) Now, I think of the present BSD operating systems as "free versions of BSD Unix", but strictly speaking they aren't. They're based on 4.4BSD-Lite, which is a free POSIX-compliant operating system which has had all of the "Unix" code that was in BSD Unix rewritten or removed so that it can be given away for free. Therefore, 4.4BSD-Lite and its derivatives meet neither the "licensed from AT&T/USL/whoever" standard for being able to call themselves "Unix", nor the "complies with X/OPEN XPG4" standard for being able to call themselves "Unix", so legally they can't. Note that this is equally true of Linux, but you see advertisements all the time claiming that Linux is "a free [version of] Unix", etc. This is indicative of really nothing but contempt for trademark law on the part of the people who write advertisements like that, but if SCO and X/OPEN continue to allow their trademark to be diluted in this manner, perhaps they'll lose it, which might in fact end quite a bit of this confusion. Oh, by the way, a note to the original poster -- you got lucky this time. You shouldn't count on being able to post your homework assignments to the net, so that other people will do them for you. Pray that I don't carbon this, plus your original article, to your professor. -- Thor Lancelot Simon tls@rek.tjls.com Most things do not correlate with actual behavior. -George Conklin