Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!apple!rutgers!njin!princeton!phoenix!bskendig
From: bskendig@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Brian Scott Kendig)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: What does UNIX stand for?
Summary: This is what it stands for.
Message-ID: <8367@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 11 May 89 15:12:32 GMT
References: <7021@saturn.ucsc.edu> <8736@boulder.Colorado.EDU>
Reply-To: bskendig@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Brian Scott Kendig)
Organization: Department of Redundancy Department, Princeton University, NJ
Lines: 22

In article <8736@boulder.Colorado.EDU> fozzard@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Richard Fozzard) writes:
>In article <7021@saturn.ucsc.edu> avalon@ssyx.ucsc.edu (Scott A. McIntyre) writes:
>>Please respond via email, as he does not even know what UNIX stands for...
>Well...I'd like to know what UNIX stands for....

And you shall.  I went to the authority on this one: a little white book
entitled _The UNIX Programming Environment_, by none other than Brian
Kernighan and Rob Pike.  A little footnote on the first page of the preface
states
	"UNIX" is *not* an acronym, but a weak pun on MULTICS, the
	operating system that [Ken] Thompson and [Dennis] Ritchie
	worked on before UNIX.

>Or does it stand for ideals, such as Life, Liberty, The Pursuit of Happiness?

That goes without saying.  :)

     << Brian Kendig >>

(Disclaimer: We all know that I am not wither Kerningham nor Pike, so I
didn't originally write that quote.  Just thought I'd make sure you knew
that.)