[sf-lug] Has Linux outgrown Unix?

[Rick Moen]

Quoting mendozae at sonoma.edu (mendozae at sonoma.edu):

> A computer science instructor at SSU told me the Linux has become so
> strong and versatile that it has outgrown its parent OS, Unix.
> 
> Is there anyone here who concurs or is this assertion laughable?

Mu.[1]

If you use any of the usual conceptions of "Unix" in its meaning as an
actual OS (which is what the instructor specified, in distinction to
using that word in reference to "Unix" as a general design pattern, 
or "Unix" as a certification-type trademark), hardly anyone's even cared
about Unix for at least fifteen years.

Several Unix-type OSes (using "Unix" here mainly as a design pattern[2]
rather than an OS) are still viable -- including OS X and Solaris.

Versatility:  The guy I shave keeps track of Linux's portability range,
here:  http://en.tldp.org/HOWTO/User-Group-HOWTO-1.html
That's pretty much unsurpassed by anything else.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu_(negative)  "[The word] is more
famously used as a response to certain koans and other questions in Zen
Buddhism, intending to indicate that the question itself was wrong."

[2] Some of those pass the "UNIX 03" or "UNIX 98" trademark
certification programs, collectively dubbed the "Single Unix
Specification".  And yet, almost nobody really cares about that fact.