The Many Flavors of UNIX

The table below summarizes some of the common UNIX variants and clones. While the table lists about forty different variants, the UNIX world isn't nearly as diverse as it used to be. Some of them are defunct and are listed for historical purposes. Others are on their way out. In some cases, vendors have defected to Microsoft technology. In others, mergers and acquisitions have led to the consolidation of different UNIX implementations. A list of "dead" UNIX implementations would be substantial indeed, consisting of hundreds of variations on the letters "U," "I," and "X" (CLIX, CX/UX, MV/UX, SINIX, VENIX, etc.).

UNIX Variants and Clones

UNIX Variant

Company/Org.

For More Info

A/UX

Apple Computer, Inc.

defunct

AIX

IBM

http://www.rs6000.ibm.com/
software/

AT&T System V

AT&T

defunct

BS2000/OSD-BC

Siemens AG

http://www.siemens.com/
servers/bs2osd/

BSD/OS

Berkeley Software Design, Inc.

http://www.bsdi.com

CLIX

Intergraph Corp.

http://www.intergraph.com

Debian GNU/Hurd

Software in the Public Interest, Inc.

http://www.gnu.org/
software/hurd/debian-
gnu-hurd.html

Debian GNU/Linux

Software in the Public Interest, Inc.

http://www.debian.org

DG/UX

Data General Corp.

http://www.dg.com/
products/html/dg_ux.html

Digital Unix

Compaq Computer Corporation

http://www.unix.digital.com/

DYNIX/ptx

Sequent Computer Systems, Inc.

http://www.sequent.com/
products/software/
operatingsys/dynix.html

Esix UNIX

Esix Systems

http://www.esix.com/

FreeBSD

FreeBSD group

http://www.freebsd.org

GNU Herd

GNU organization

http://www.gnu.org

HAL SPARC64/OS

HAL Computer Systems, Inc.

http://www.hal.com

HP-UX

Hewlett-Packard Company

http://www.hp.com/
unixwork/hpux/

Irix

Silicon Graphics, Inc.

http://www.sgi.com/
software/irix6.5/

Linux

several

http://www.linux.org

LynxOS

Lynx Real-Time Systems, Inc.

http://www.lynx.com/
products/lynxos.html

MachTen

Tenon Intersystems

http://www.tenon.com/
products/machten/

MacOS X Server

Apple Computer, Inc.

http://www.apple.com/macosx/

Minix

none

http://www.cs.vu.nl/~ast/
minix.html

MkLinux

Apple Computer, Inc.

http://www.mklinux.apple.com

NCR UNIX SVR4 MP-RAS

NCR Corporation

http://www3.ncr.com/
product/integrated/
software/p2.unix.html

NetBSD

NetBSD group

http://www.netbsd.org

NeXTSTEP

NeXT Computer Inc.

defunct, see http://www.apple.com/
enterprise/

NonStop-UX

Compaq Computer Corporation

http://www.tandem.com

OpenBSD

OpenBSD group

http://www.openbsd.org

OpenLinux

Caldera Systems, Inc.

http://www.calderasystems.com

Openstep

Apple Computer, Inc.

http://www.apple.com/
enterprise/

QNX Realtime OS

QNX Software Systems Ltd.

http://www.qnx.com/
products/os/qnxrtos.html

Red Hat Linux

Red Hat Software, Inc.

http://www.redhat.com/

Reliant UNIX

Siemens AG

http://www.siemens.com/
servers/rm/

Solaris

Sun Microsystems

http://www.sun.com/
software/solaris/

SunOS

Sun Microsystems

defunct

SuSE

S.u.S.E., Inc.

http://www.suse.com

UNICOS

Silicon Graphics, Inc.

http://www.sgi.com/software/
unicos/

UnixWare

SCO -- The Santa Cruz Operation Inc.

http://www.sco.com/unix/

UTS

Amdahl Corporation

http://www.amdahl.com/uts/


Excerpt from Unix System Security Tools by Seth T. Ross
Copyright © 1999 by The McGraw-Hill Companies. Used with permission.
HTML Copyright © 1999 Albion.com.

 

 

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