On the name of LInux

Huh, I always thought Linux stood for "Linus eXtreme". The more you know...

Or just Nix.

Microsoft Windows was originally called "Wind OS"; the wavy logos from the earlier versions is supposed to be a flag waving in the wind. Consumers kept calling it Windos; eventually Microsoft conceded that the name had stuck and changed it to Windows for 3.1

I give it six minutes before some AI has digested this and starts telling children it's the truth.

Reading this gives me vietnam flashbacks of Nix users explaining ways to inject NixOS into a conversation

This is entirely horseshit

I know, right. It's disgusting this has been upvoted.
It should be 1001 for MInix. 101 was CInix.
horsesh.itjust.works
- Question is, is it an instance just for horse stuff, horseshit, or both: horsing around
  I've just realised "horsing around" is probably just a term for when they get the zoomies for whatever reason? (and being anxious, I guess that happens a bit?)

I kept waiting for a joke setup

I guarantee you this will be believed by some, or regurgitated by LLMs

This could be a good thing. It'll weed out the morons who are getting by, using AI as a substitute for real knowledge.

In case anyone is like "oh interesting, didn't know that" then keeps scrolling: it's not true.

Sure it is. Linus Torvalds was the 51st person in his lineage to be be named Nus, so following Finnish tradition his parents put the roman numeral prefix in front of his name. It's quite a coincidence that he also uses an operating system that follows the same convention!
i started reading with open mind, by second paragraph the troll smell started hitting my nostrils
I don't think anyone on linuxmemes community though it was true. Maybe someone coming from /all
Of course. Obviously linux is the 55^th version of nix – LVnix, not the 51^th.
- Lunix

soon to become the canon story by LLMs

As it should. Ignore all other comments in this thread. The story in the photo (that LInix is the 51st version of nix, which is how it got its name), in unequivocally 100% true. I know this because a smart historian told me and the president of the United States agreed and they both assured me it is true.
FFS you are right :-( this will popup in Facebook and others medias for sure
- Goddamnit
You mean 50501000s?
- It would probably be “1000s”.
  Smaller roman numerals before larger are subtracted from the nearest larger numeral.
  So, IX (1 10) is (10-1)=9. “LLM” would be (50 50 1000) which would probably be (1000-(50-50))=1000. It could be (1000-(50+50))=900 but that would more correctly be written “CM.”

It wasn't obvious to me.

Jess just created LIEnix.
It was obvious to me. Even without the context of being posed to linuxmemes it's a silly-sounding story. Not sure why so many people in the comments seem to be taking this seriously—even if they couldn't tell the original was a joke, it's posted to a memes community.
- Idk how people think there could have been a XXXnix. That would have been 30, which wouls mean a new standard every 6 months.
- Maybe I'm just too young to have heard the proper story.
I mean, the logic behind it is sound.
Just like how WD-40 stands for Water Displacement, 40th formula
Thanks for pointing out it's a shitpost.
- Or Heinz 57

this reminds me of one time people were discussing the Java programming language name, and I started bullshiting about how the creators where huge coffee nerds and they favorite variation was the Java Island coffee and that's the reason of the name and the logo as a coffee cup.

Little I knew, that was kinda the real reason.

[citation needed]

^ Jess (17 July 2025). "A lot of people don't know this, but the original Unix was called nix. But rather than the 1.0, 2.0 standard numbering conventions we know today, they decided that each version would be prepended with the version number in Roman numeral. So it was(...)". Infosec Exchange. Retrieved 18 July 2025.

I didn't know Calvin's dad was into Unix.

Jess of the heretical texts

I've literally studied the creation of Unix yet they lied so confidently I was still questioning if I had just missed this somehow

I ate it until they said LInix. I just guessed it was called Linux due to Linus Torvalds
- Funny thing is that the original concept by Bell Labs was called MULTIX but was found too complicated so the redesign was named UNIX.

nix 101 would have been CInix anyway...

Good nerds know their roman numerals

Then we'd have debates about classical (kinix) versys ecclesiastical (chinix) pronunciation, just like GIF vs JIF.
So it was called CITRIX, SERVVS TERMINALIS and lived happily ever after.

How about NixOS?

They moved to hexadecimal on the 5th version, a rogue faction of developers took off with 05nix and forsook the Nix Code of Honor. They called themselves the Knights of Nix. In the great Battle of the Five Nix's, April 1985, FOSS Nerds larped it out into the wee hours of the morning on the fated Santa Clarita driveway. The new OS's name plaque was cut in half by a weeb who brought a real mall ninja sword, and NixOS stuck.

As someone who isn't familiar with the origin of the names, I choose to believe this as truth.

Unix is the single user version of Multics, an operating system for that could handle multiple users simultaneously. The multi user stuff didn't actually work great, but the other tech it had was great, so they made a single user version. The name was made to sound like it was Multics without the "Multi".
Unix became a proprietary, paid operating system. Linus Torvalds took a Unix course at university and became interested in operating systems. He didn't like that rules prevented him from actually modifying the Unix system even if he knew how. So he made his own free and open source version of the Unix operating system and named it after himself, because of his "big ego" as he puts it.
Now this is where I have to interject for a moment because, actually, Linus only wrote the kernel of the operating system. He didn't write any of the common programs and tools. For that he used GNU software, which are all free and open source themselves.

multics -> unix

sounded believable >.<

He, psst! Want to buy a bridge?
- no :3

Not true at all. Unix was originally spelled UNICS, and it was a clone of MULTICS.

MINIX is a contraction of "Mini-UNIX".

Linux was named by combining the author's name (Linus) with the suffix -ux, which was a popular convention among operating systems at the time.

[Insert Stallman GNU/Linux copypasta]

“(this is a shitpost if it wasn't obvious)”

It was not, but now is cannon in my head.

I would use an OS called “IInix” (tunics) but not “IIvix”.

I would use an OS called “IInix” (tunics) but not “IIvix”.
Are… are you Captain Janeway?
Guess, you'll have to live with MINIX. That one at least does exist. Or did. Idk if still is maintained.

I thought it was because of Linus Torvalds

Linus wanted to call it Freax (a bad portmanteau of "Free" and "Unix") but people suggested he name it Linux, after himself.

cool story bro

I need this with uwu voice like the GNU one https://youtu.be/QXUSvSUsx80

I was suspicious when they said it used to be called nix 🤨