unix vs. Unix vs. UNIX

["rutherford b. martin" <onefourfive -at- HOTMAIL -dot- COM>]

hey all

i enjoyed all the different responses to my 'UNIX vs. Unix' query. its
amazing how many different answers i got.

according to several VERY authoritative posts, the term UNIX is owned by one
of the following: Bell Labs, Bellcore (?!), ATT, Lucent, Novell, Open, the
Open Systems Foundation, and/or MIT.
depending on how one feels about things, the term can be used employing all
caps, an initial cap, or in all lowercase. i was pointed to several
websites, some espousing different points of view.

here's what i heard:
- 'UNIX' is a trademark owned by a company, educational institution, or
foundation probably having something to do with telecom, network OSs,
research, or Open Systems.
- 'Unix' generically refers to any one of several flavors of a previously
public OS, which was purchased or assimilated at some point. note: some
unidentified lawyers apparently prefer this usage as it allows them make
huge sums of money.
- 'unix' is the form preferred by folks who are uncomfortable with terse,
overly-arcane, secret society-like file systems and consequently refuse to
honor its existense through capitalization.

here's what i believe:
- UNIX is a trademark owned by Novell.
- the term Unix is no longer 'legal'. as such, it is probably a good idea to
avoid this form.
- 'unix' is uh, just wrong.

rbmIII


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