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by curt1511 hours ago |
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upvoteby steve197710 hours ago|
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> That's why Microsoft developed WSL, not WSU.

Developed WSL and discontinued SFU (Windows Services for UNIX), which they had since NT 4 days.

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upvoteby mycall10 hours ago|
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SFU 1.0 and 2.0 relied on the MKS Toolkit by MKS/PTC, and SFU 3.0 later adopted the Interix (OpenNT) subsystem, which Microsoft acquired from Softway Systems in 1999.

The original POSIX Subsystem (psxss.exe) was Cutler's team who implemented a minimal POSIX.1 subsystem server alongside Win32 and OS/2. This was done primarily to satisfy US Federal Government procurement requirements (FIPS 151-2).

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upvoteby jasomill6 hours ago|
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True, though to Microsoft's credit, the existence of the POSIX subsystem, even as a proof-of-concept, ensured the underlying kernel design supported the development of products like Interix, just as Windows on Alpha et al. ensured NT remained reasonably portable to future platforms like ARM, unlike say OS/2 where the only non-Intel release (for PowerPC) was basically a prerelease lacking core OS features like networking.
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upvoteby CursedSilicon3 hours ago|
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You're mixing it up with NT's "personalities" of which OS/2 was the primary target at the time. UNIX was purely for FIPS contracts
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upvoteby okanat56 minutes ago|
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I think they are saying that "Unlike OS/2 itself (as a competing MS and then IBM product) had less thought and design went into it as a portable system, whereas NT was designed portable ground up"
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upvoteby OCTAGRAM7 hours ago|
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SFU ended in XP/2003. Vista/2008 had SUA
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upvoteby chupasaurus4 hours ago|
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WSLv1 worked via Unix Subsystem.
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upvoteby tyromaniac2 hours ago|
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Proof? I couldnt find anything to that effect.
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upvoteby Spooky238 hours ago|
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I’m pretty sure Federal procurement is the big driver of relevance for this certification. They have always had a huge Fed business.

If they are in fact dropping it, that’s why. But… Apple often “finishes” the enterprise features with a point release.

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upvoteby john_alan8 hours ago|
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Sure, I just hope macOS doesn't end up doing some custom thing rather than staying Unix/Linux like, which we've had with macOS/OS X till now.
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upvoteby bitwize10 hours ago|
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Linux has been effectively Unix™ for me ever since the days when Dennis Ritchie indicated that he used Linux for everything on his web page. Late 2000s at the latest, maybe early 2000s. Unix enough for Dennis should be Unix enough for anyone.
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upvoteby pjmlp10 hours ago|
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Well he and others moved away from UNIX, created Plan 9 and Inferno.

In these efforts they also tried to create successor languages to C, Alef and Limbo (for userspace), and never cared that much about anything past C89.

He has settled with Linux because that is the winner of UNIX wars, which predated Linux wars on Distrowatch.

As for the original UNIX,

"Using Unix is the computing equivalent of listening only to music by David Cassidy"

-- Rob Pike

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upvoteby bananamogul7 hours ago|
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Yes, Unix = Linux for all intents and purposes in 2026. When I started in the early 90s, there was a galaxy of Unices - SunOS/Solaris, HP-UX, AIX, and many others people people don't even remember (ConvexOS anyone?). Heck, back then if you wanted to run a particular software for your industry, you might have to buy and install a specific proprietary Unix.

Today? It's all Linux or Windows (of course, now also Web/SaaS). All these different Unices have fallen by the wayside in favor of Linux. Yes, some are still around but the mindshare has been in Linux for the last 20 years.

I suspect you could rip out a ton of autoconf rules and no one would notice.

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upvoteby GalaxyNova2 hours ago|
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There's still a lot of people on FreeBSD, OpenBSD, etc
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upvoteby jeremyjh10 hours ago|
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Caring about which systems are branded UNIX is like caring about which NBA player was paid to endorse a particular brand of athletic footwear.
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upvoteby dual_dingo10 hours ago|
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I've been using Linux for 30+ years now and have always considered it free (as in speech) Unix. For my purposes, the difference was always more legal and philosophical than practical. Of course, I was a student back then and didn't need to run the commercial software of the time.
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