Afloyd.79 net.misc utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!duke!chico!harpo!floyd!trb Fri Feb 12 10:13:08 1982 UNIX name UNIX is NOT an acronym. It is sort of a play on MULTICS, MULtipurpose TImesharing Computer System, or something, a creature that runs on Honeywell machines. UNIX does draw some of its discreet charm from MULTICS. I think that UNIX was sort of a singular mini version of whatever it was that MULTICS was a multiple maxi version of. A personal version, originally a fun toy. As long as we are on the subject of obscure nomenclature, there is a rarely seen version of UNIX called NUXI that seems to pop up now and then on new processors, shortly before they start running UNIX... Andy Tannenbaum Bell Labs Whippany, NJ (201) 386-6491 ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.