16 Jun
2005
16 Jun
'05
8:46 a.m.
On 6/16/05, Amol Hatwar amol@hatwar.org wrote:
Hehe... just as a fact from computing history, the word UNIX stems from eunuch. It (UNIX) was started as an alternative to MULTICS.
The word UNIX is a wordplay on MULTICS coined by Brian Kernighan. Uno == one , Multi = many. UNIX was earlier known as UNICS which led to jokes (UNIX = castrated Multics) as it was a homophone of eunuch. (btw UNICS = Uniplexed Information and Computing System).
So the origin of UNIX does not lie in the word eunuch. Some websites also wrongly attribute the origin of word UNIX as UNIX = eunuch + Multics. Actually it was intended to be UNIX = uni-Multics (UNICS)
--> Vinayak H
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