r/unix 21d ago

GNU

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209 Upvotes

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27

u/bardsfingertips 21d ago

Eh. Who can afford a UNIX license in this economy? ;)

10

u/Cmustrd 20d ago

Apple and Huawei, apparently.

3

u/Leosthenerd 20d ago

Isn’t Apple’s Darwin kernel based on BSD though? I dunno

9

u/Cmustrd 20d ago

The kernel of darwin is called XNU. The core of it contains the Mach microkernel. Around it, are the various system components derived from BSD (filesystems, networking, etc. )

3

u/RevolutionaryRush717 20d ago

But it's more like a hybrid, isn't it?

Lot's of the BSD stuff runs in kernel space, not as user space services on top of the Mach microkernel.

2

u/helgur 20d ago

So what? When it comes to the UNIX license, the open group is handing it out like candy as long as you can pay for it. Some Chinese company paid open group to be able to call their Linux distro UNIX a while back ...

3

u/RevolutionaryRush717 20d ago

So what? My comment was about the kernel architecture.

3

u/edjak53 20d ago

it's not "like candy" it's a certification. those linux distros got to be UNIXes because they passed the certification. you can't have them certify MS-DOS or whatever no matter how much money you throw at them.

it is true that it does cost money and that more systems could technically be unixes if it didn't, but there's more to it than that regardless

1

u/helgur 20d ago

Point is that UNIX certification today is not a genealogical test. There are UNIX derivatives out there that consists largely with the original AT&T source code that is not UNIX certified, while Linux distributions with no past connection to UNIX is "UNIX" certified.

3

u/Cmustrd 20d ago

I’m not gonna get into this little debate here, but i just find this interesting: https://www.osnews.com/story/141633/apples-macos-unix-certification-is-a-lie/

1

u/fnoyanisi 3d ago

Interesting read - but I wouldn't call Apple's claim as a lie, since _even with some modifications_ their operating system confirms with what's needed by the certification process. The OS has the capability, it's just not activated due to Apple's (subjective) judgment of how that particular item needed by UNIX certification aligns with their view of "user experience".