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June 2001, Week 2

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Subject:
Re: OT: What Does UNIX Mean?
From:
Jeff Kell <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Jeff Kell <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 11 Jun 2001 17:35:23 -0400
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Wirt Atmar wrote:
>
> Jim asks:
>
> > A friend of mine asked me what U-N-I-X stands for, if anything.  I'm at a
> >  loss.  Does anyone know if U-N-I-X is an acronym or a made-up word or what?
>
> It's more made up than it stands for anything. It actually more stands
> "against" something. It was coined to be "unix", in contrast to "multics",
> which was a common operating system of the day.

And Multics (which was an acronym; Multiplexed Information and Computing
System) was designed for multiple users; Unix began essentially as a
single-user environment (Uni- vs Multi- ).

Jeff

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