So in most technical circles and indeed in the research communities surrounding
UNIX, the name of the system was just that, UNIX, prefixed often with some
descriptor of which stream, be it Research, USG, BSD/Berkeley, but in any case
the name UNIX itself was descriptive of the operating system for many of its
acolytes and disciples.
However, in AT&T literature and media, addition of "System" to the end of
the
formal name seemed to become de facto if not de jure. This can be seen for
instance in manual edits in the early 80s with references to just "UNIX" being
replaced with variations on "The UNIX System", sometimes haphazardly as if done
via a search and replace with little review. This too is evident in some
informative films published by AT&T, available on YouTube today as
"The UNIX Operating System" and "UNIX: Making Computers Easier to
Use"[1][2].
Discrepancies in the titles of the videos notwithstanding, throughout it seems
there are several instances where audio of an interviewee saying
"The UNIX System" were edited over what I presume were instances of them simply
saying UNIX.
I'm curious if anyone has the scoop on whether this was an attempt to echo the
"One Bell System" and related terminology, marketing tag lines like
"The System is the Solution", and/or the naming of the revisions themselves as
"System <xyz>". On the other hand, could it have simply been for clarity,
with
the uninitiated not being able to glean from the product name anything about it,
making the case for adding "System" in formal descriptions to give them a
little
bit of a hint.
Bell Labs folks especially, was there ever some grand thou shalt call it
"The UNIX System" in all PR directive or was it just something that organically
happened over time as bureaucratic powers at be got their hands on a part of the
steering wheel?
- Matt G.
[1] -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc4ROCJYbm0
[2] -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvDZLjaCJuw