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Computer Programming Software Terms, Glossary and Dictionary
Unix
Unix (or UNIX) is a computer operating system originally developed in the 1960s and 1970s by AT&T Bell Labs. Today Unix is split into various branches, developed over time by many companies and non-profit organizations, such as contributors to the GNU project. The present owner of the UNIX trademark is The Open Group, while the present claimants on the rights to the UNIX source code are SCO Group and Novell. The UNIX operating system was designed to let multiple users access the computer at the same time and share its resources. While initially designed for medium-sized minicomputers, the operating system was soon moved to larger, more powerful mainframe computers. As personal computers grew in popularity, versions of UNIX found their way into these boxes, and a number of companies produce UNIX-based machines for the scientific and programming communities.
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