Unix brand?

Posted Jun 14, 2010 0:38 UTC (Mon) by vonbrand (subscriber, #4458)
In reply to: Stewart Rules: Novell Wins! CASE CLOSED! (Groklaw) by shmerl
Parent article: Stewart Rules: Novell Wins! CASE CLOSED! (Groklaw)

To get branded as Unix you have to contact The Open Group and pay a fee... and only that (unchanged!) system (not just the kernel) is then certified as a true Unix. So this would have to be done by distributions, if they are interested. So far, none have found it worth their while.

Unix brand?

Posted Jun 14, 2010 9:25 UTC (Mon) by trasz (guest, #45786) [Link] (4 responses)

So far, none have found it worth their while to invest some serious money to make it actually POSIX-compliant so it can pass the neccessary tests.

Unix brand?

Posted Jun 14, 2010 15:54 UTC (Mon) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link] (3 responses)

And, actually, it's pretty certain that in some cases they would have to change POSIX to match linux, not the other way round.

Linus is on record as condemning certain POSIX features as "brain dead", so they'll go into linux over his dead body.

And given the traction linux has, I think linux will win over POSIX, not the other way round :-)

Cheers,
Wol

Unix brand?

Posted Jun 14, 2010 20:49 UTC (Mon) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]

POSIX has already changed in significant ways to match Linux: most of the changes in POSIX.1 2008 were Linux-originated.

Unix brand?

Posted Jun 16, 2010 7:53 UTC (Wed) by trasz (guest, #45786) [Link] (1 responses)

True that - and rather unfortunate, as it means that Linux is the new Microsoft when it comes to standards.

Unix brand?

Posted Jun 16, 2010 22:19 UTC (Wed) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]

Given the number of Linux hackers on the Austin Group, and the way that a lot of toolchain people (from GCC to glibc) refuse to add new features until they're standardized, I'd say this accusation is entirely unjustified. We don't 'embrace, extend, extinguish'; we 'extend, standardize' or alternately, sometimes, 'standardize, implement'. This seems a hell of a lot better than the MS way to me, and also better than the traditional Unix-wars fragmentation hell.