The first widely
distributed version of Unix, released unsupported by Bell Labs
in 1978. The term is used adjectivally to describe Unix features
and programs that date from that release, and are thus guaranteed
to be present and portable in all Unix versions (this was the
standard gauge of portability before the POSIX and IEEE 1003
standards). Note that this usage does not derive from the
release being the "seventh version of Unix"; research
Unix at Bell Labs has traditionally been numbered according to
the edition of the associated documentation. Indeed, only the
widely-distributed Sixth and Seventh Editions are widely known as
V[67]; the OS that might today be known as `V10' is instead known
in full as "Tenth Edition Research Unix" or just "Tenth
Edition" for short. For this reason, "V7" is often read by
cognoscenti as "Seventh Edition". See BSD, USG Unix,
Unix. Some old-timers impatient with commercialization and
kernel bloat still maintain that V7 was the Last True Unix.
Unix /yoo'niks/ n.
[In the authors' words, "A weak pun
on Multic very early on it was `UNICS'] (also `UNIX') An
interactive time-sharing system invented in 1969 by Ken Thompson
after Bell Labs left the Multics project, originally so he could
play games on his scavenged PDP-7....
