Choose UNIX® Inside

By The Open Group

In 1991, Intel Corporation started their “Intel Inside” marketing and branding campaign that turned Intel into a household name.[1] The power of “Intel Inside” was that it allowed consumers to quickly understand the value of what was “in-the-box” and make an informed buying decision.

UNIX® is another great example of a strong brand platform “inside” a bigger solution and, in some opinions, the UNIX platform has showcased a broader impact on technology than Intel.[2] An operating system (OS) that becomes UNIX certified has gone through the rigorous testing process to verify compliance with the Single UNIX Specification – The UNIX Standard.[3]  This certification provides an assurance to customers, independent software vendors, developers, integrators, and system vendors that a UNIX OS will work in a deterministic and well-defined way. “UNIX inside” allows IT decision-makers to quickly understand what is in the solution, even though the operating system is one component of the broader solution including hardware, applications, etc.

Another apt comparison to The UNIX Standard and  “Intel Inside” is UL certification mark often seen on devices using electricity. Underwriters Laboratories (UL) dates back to 1894 providing “safety-related certification, validation, testing inspection, auditing, advising and training services” around electrical devices and components.[4] From the early days of commercialized electronics a UL listed product gave confidence to consumers that what they buy would meet a rigorous set of standards from components, to wiring, to the product itself.

In the case of UNIX, The Open Group serves as the lab providing assurance to the end customers that every UNIX OS will deliver a set of rich feature sets, stability, scalability, and portability.  The UNIX® registered trademark is used in conjunction with a certified UNIX OS such as HPE HP-UX, Oracle® Solaris, IBM AIX, and many other brands to showcase its conformance.[5]

The UNIX OS has been a foundation of innovation for more than 45 years and the Single UNIX Specification (the UNIX Standard) has been in place for 20 years. “UNIX continues to be at the heart of the IT industry as it is an important enabler of other technologies such as Cloud.  Oracle Solaris 11, a UNIX OS, is a complete, integrated, and open platform engineered for large-scale enterprise Cloud which is why Oracle customers continue to prefer Solaris under the hood,” said Chris Armes, Vice President, Oracle Solaris Engineering. Global 100 and Fortune 100 customers choose “UNIX inside” for always-on mission critical computing.  Apple chose “UNIX inside” as the basis of their flagship operating system – MAC OS X / El Capitan.[6]

Learn more about UNIX innovation with the resources listed below and why so many companies have chosen “UNIX inside”.

• Infographic / UNIX Evolution: http://opengroup.org/sites/default/files/contentimages/Brochures/unix-info-long-print.pdf

© The Open Group 2016.

UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group.  HP-UX is a registered trademark of HPE.  AIX is a registered trademark of IBM.  Oracle Solaris is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation. El Capitan and Mac OS X are trademarks of Apple Inc.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel#Intel_Inside

[2] The UNIX Evolution: An Innovative History Blog:  http://blog.opengroup.org/2016/02/23/the-unix-evolution-an-innovative-history/

[3] The Single UNIX Specification: http://www.unix.org/version4/overview.html

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UL_%28safety_organization%29

[5] http://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/register/

[6] http://blog.opengroup.org/2015/10/02/mac-os-x-el-capitan-achieves-unix-certification/