this post was submitted on 09 May 2026
461 points (99.4% liked)

Linux

14327 readers
205 users here now

A community for everything relating to the GNU/Linux operating system (except the memes!)

Also, check out:

Original icon base courtesy of lewing@isc.tamu.edu and The GIMP

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 

source (non free website)

top 44 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] snoons@lemmy.ca 77 points 2 months ago (1 children)

linics

hmmmm.... no, i don't like it

[–] thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 24 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] tux0r@snac.rosaelefanten.org 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] hanrahan@slrpnk.net 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)
[–] tux0r@snac.rosaelefanten.org 1 points 1 month ago

Arch users can't Gentoo, else they would Gentoo.

[–] Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 months ago

Fanatics for fedora users?

I'm a Minatic myself.

[–] midribbon_action@lemmy.blahaj.zone 46 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Cool story, but I already chose to believe Ken Thompson has no testicles some time ago.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 27 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Didn't expect this in the comments. What's this about?

[–] midribbon_action@lemmy.blahaj.zone 82 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Ken Thompson is one of the most influential unix of all time.

[–] Lumidaub@feddit.org 31 points 2 months ago

*very angry upvote*

[–] Vajra_furor@lemmy.blahaj.zone 25 points 2 months ago (1 children)

When she showed me this joke, I had to leave the room. She was so proud of how funny she is.

[–] Ludicrous0251@piefed.zip 15 points 2 months ago

She is very funny. She should be proud.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I still don't get it. Am I whooshing or do I just not have enough details yet? I just woke up btw...

[–] auntieclokwise@lemmy.world 19 points 2 months ago (2 children)

The word Unix sounds very close to the word for a castrated male.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

Oh my god, of course. lol, thanks!

[–] peterhorvath@mastodon.de 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

@auntieclokwise @victorz :-) What is the language on which you are thinking on?

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

If I'm reading English text, I think in English. Otherwise it varies between my native tongue and English.

[–] peterhorvath@mastodon.de -1 points 2 months ago (2 children)

@victorz They are not even similar on English.

[–] J_N_F@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

Unix and eunuchs. They are very similar.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

But yes they are.

Also I think you mean "in English". Is your native language perhaps Scandinavian or otherwise close to German?

[–] sbeak@sopuli.xyz 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

eunuchs (a word used to describe testicle-less men working for various different rulers around the world)

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

Thanks 😄

[–] peterhorvath@mastodon.de 1 points 2 months ago

@sbeak @victorz It is "unix car parts shop"

[–] meowmeow@quokk.au 31 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Just wait until lynucks gets revealed

[–] swab148@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 2 months ago (3 children)
[–] Jarix@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I dig it. Make it so

[–] tux0r@snac.rosaelefanten.org 1 points 2 months ago (2 children)
[–] swab148@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 2 months ago

Famously, not a Linux distro

[–] Grass@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago

O Penbee Esdee

[–] meowmeow@quokk.au 1 points 2 months ago
[–] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

I need a jynnan tonnyx.

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 26 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Now the question is, did he put the x as a variable i.e. they couldn't agree how to write it so he used x as a stand-in, or was he using x phonetically.

Probably the latter, and yet...

[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 22 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Dang, people should email him for 15 years to find out!

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 30 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Let's leave it unsettled so future nerd historians, 100 years from now, can hate us for not asking and write books speculating about it.

[–] modus@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Or post the question on a forum, then post "response deleted" and then post a third one to say "Thanks! That was super-interesting!"

[–] FunStuffIsFun@eviltoast.org 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Share a screenshot, but be sure that the screenshot is a photobucket 404.

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

And this, for the readers in the future reading this post from their flying cars on Mars (or Roko's Basilisk), is what we call trolling in the ancient times.

[–] Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 months ago

X = GNU achtually

[–] mech@feddit.org 11 points 2 months ago

Now try asking Ken M

[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago

Answer transcribed by moi:

Unix was named (phonetically) by bwk. I don't think he ever spelled it, but since it was a play on multics, he thought it was unics (you can ask him).

At the time, Unix was compiled on the central computer at Bell Labs (GE-635) that produced a PDP-7 paper tape. Usually, I just ran the tape and threw it away. When I needed to save a tape, I wrote "Unix" on the tape. It [the name] stuck after that.

[–] x00z@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

It really feels like I knew this already.

[–] Paranoidfactoid@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I wish someone would make a Plan 9 distribution.

[–] tux0r@snac.rosaelefanten.org 1 points 1 month ago

A couple of Plan 9 distributions exist.

[–] scathliath@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 months ago

This should be made into a purity seal.