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Comment by Dreami | Hacker News Reader

From the name I thought this was about learning NixOS, and they found a very clever name

Maybe the author could add a small note that this is not about that, and refer to something official about NixOS?

Anyway, I like the idea of the project!

“*nix” means a Unix-like OS just generally (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%2Anix), like for example in “Minix” and “Xenix”. Sticking “OS” to the end of an OS name is also commonplace. However, the title on the page is “The Learnix Operating System”, so the actual name seems to be just “Learnix”.

It’s arguably Nix and NixOS who have unnecessarily stepped into the “*nix” namespace without adding a distinguishing prefix.

> “*nix” means a Unix-like OS just generally

"Unix-like OS" isn't a thing that has existed for two decades. Only Linux and Darwin survived, so don't do the "*nix" thing, please.

BSD would like a word.

They can't be heard over the faint booing from the Solaris crowd.

For that matter, if we're including the proprietary OSs, HP-UX is still kinda a thing and AIX is going strong. Of course, IIRC those are actual certified UNIX™ instead of unix-like... though I'd call that a subset, so still in scope IMO.

TIL AIX is still in development and they had a release this month

https://community.ibm.com/community/user/blogs/sanket-rathi1...

We don't talk about BSD here.

Illumos is still actively developed, open source, and can trace its lineage back to actual unix.

For that matter, we've had new members joining the family over the years; https://www.redox-os.org/ is, in their own words, "a complete Unix-like microkernel-based operating system written in Rust, with a focus on security, reliability and safety."

Not to mention that Version 4 UNIX source code was just released!

Well, yes, but that's not exactly a modern OS, just historically interesting.

For anyone wondering, OpenSolaris -> illumos (e.g. OpenIndiana). Good times!

Before clicking the links.. How confident do you feel about your assertion?

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=...

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=Unix%20l...

Very confident.

The people who do the "*nix" cargo cult thing have never seen a SunOS machine and don't even know what a HPUX is.

The linked trends suggest a revival of the term though.

> The people who do the "*nix" cargo cult thing have never seen a SunOS machine and don't even know what a HPUX is.

The meaning of words evolve over time though. Text is still broken into lines by "carriage return/line feeds" and is written on "hard disk" split up in "sectors".,. Over time people using these would not have seen a typewriter or even know what a platter is but may still use it to communicate effectively.

Darwin is not UNIX (nor is XNU). But macOS technically is certified UNIX.

XNU literally stands for “X is Not Unix”

Then I guess the OS part is redundant, since thr nix already implies an OS.

No, actually Nix is a package manager/system configuration tool. NixOS uses Nix as part of its image.

No, nix clearly means a Unix-like OS and any other interpretation is wrong, as the context of this thread would suggest.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/homonym

So your argument is the first usage of a word gets exclusive rights to it? Firstly, that's not how human languages work. Secondly, this would invalidate the Unix claim to "nix" as it's been a word for hundreds of years prior to Unix being invented.

It is, but in IT context the association was strong, while Unixes decline and most of the systems with derived naming are historic. But anybody with a background in sysadmin for more than 10 years probably would still have the association. In ten years Linux will probably the only one remaining with the ux-naming (and MacOS X with the single X, which also serves as ten, following MacOS 9)

My guy, most people don't even know what nix (the package manager) is.

Time to get familiar then.

LearnixOS doesn't seem to have anything to do with NixOS, afaict?

I feel like if I saw something just called "learn unix", I'd expect it to be teaching me how to use it generically, not implement it. Adding "OS" makes it clear to me that it's a dedicated OS for the purpose of learning (although it still wasn't clear to me that the goal was implement it so if anything I'd argue that the title is missing context, but the name of the OS isn't redundant).

I had the same confusion. Even without considering NixOS, "learnix" is awkward to pronounce and somewhat pretentious.

I would suggest the name "Leanix" if the author is willing to rename.

It rhymes with Minix which is the OG curriculum for a POSIX kernel, and is "lean" in many senses of the word.

In any case an excellent writeup. It's detailed enough to implement in any programming language.

I mean, it is about learning. It threw me for a loop too but I think it's actually reasonably appropriate.

What's pretentious about learnix?

> I would suggest the name "Leanix"

Then people would complain that it sounds too much like “Linux”.

Particularly if you have learned to pronounce Linus’s name correctly.

I don't find it awkward to pronounce in the least, and not in any way pretentious.

I think the name is fine as is.

I like the current name and already have the domain :|

I think that it's supposed to be a portmanteau of Unix and Learn.

Thought the same! Was a bit interested in learning Nix for a moment.

Will do!

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