What makes UNIX UNIX? (idea)

UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group.

The definitive response on what makes a UNIX® system a UNIX system can be found straight from the proverbial horse's mouth at http://www.unix-systems.org . To be a UNIX system, an operating system must have these qualities:

• The hardware requirements must be specific and correct.
• The system must conform to the Single UNIX Specification (http://www.unix-systems.org/online.html), a superset of POSIX.
• The system's publisher must spend big bucks in trademark royalties (read more: http://www.opengroup.org/registration/Brandfees.htm
), pricing free software out of the market. (Sorry, Linus. Sorry, RMS.)

More information on The Open Group's Open Brand program is available at http://www.opengroup.org/registration/ . UNIX® is capitalized for the same reason STAR WARS® and SPAM® are capitalized in press releases; they're trademarks.

See also The UNIX Trademark.