[rescue] OS X is certified UNIX

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: der Mouse <mouse at Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA>
>Date: 2007/06/13 Wed PM 03:27:31 CDT
>To: The Rescue List <rescue at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [rescue] OS X is certified UNIX

>> At one time a group of people working for AT&T Labs went through the
>> "free" BSD code and compared it line for line looking for AT&T code.
>> They found none, so BSD is not UNIX.

Uhm, that doesn't seem right (based on memory) - I thought the BSD softwarewas "tainted" to some small degree with AT&T code (remember, BSD started as an add-on pack for AT&T Unix on Vax & other architectures), so the co-mingling was (in a way) OK, because the BSD software wasn't usable without AT&T licensed software anyway... For way more info on BSD/AT&T history, see:

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book/kirkmck.html

>I think that does not follow.  For a system to have the right to be
>labeled with the trademark "UNIX", as I understand it, it needs to pass
>a certification suite, nothing more - it does not need to have any Bell
>Labs code in it.

If it has Bell Labs code in it, then a license fee needs to be paid (or have been paid), but the inclusion of Bell Labs code does not make it "Unix" - passing certain tests to the satisfaction of the Open Group [0] does allow a vendor to call their product "Single UNIX Specification Complaint"...

Lionel

[0] http://www.opengroup.org/certification/unix-home.html


>Testing against the suite is expen$ive, too, and
>quite probably certifies only a particular version, so the BSDs (a)
>probably couldn't afford it and (b) wouldn't see the point when their
>system is a fast-moving target anyway.
>
>/~\ The ASCII				der Mouse
>\ / Ribbon Campaign
> X  Against HTML	       mouse at rodents.montreal.qc.ca
>/ \ Email!	     7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39  4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B
>_______________________________________________
>rescue list - http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue