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In many books we can see the term "*nix" used. How is this term pronounced?

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3  
I guess I've always pronounced it "star-nix" in my head – Travis Christian Aug 15 '11 at 15:09
I pronounce it as 'Ljunix'. – Job Aug 15 '11 at 15:10
I pronounce it "any nix" or "star nix" – DwB Aug 15 '11 at 15:42
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I say "asterisk nix", and then I challenge the other person to say it 5 times fast. – BlackJack Aug 15 '11 at 16:03
6  
Behold the Knights who say Nix. – zenzelezz Aug 15 '11 at 17:07
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5 Answers

up vote 25 down vote accepted

I pronounce it "nix", like the last syllable of "Unix" and "Linux" or the word "nix". That makes the most sense to me, since *nix is generally used to refer to Unix, Linux, and Unix-like operating systems. Might as well pronounce it the same way.

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1  
Why don't you pronounce it "nux"? ;) – Marcelo Aug 15 '11 at 15:12
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@Marcelo Because the last syllable of Linux is pronounced the same as the last syllable of Unix - "nix". – Thomas Owens♦ Aug 15 '11 at 15:13
In the case of Linux, I actually pronounce more like "nox". – Marcelo Aug 15 '11 at 15:16
@Marcelo Maybe it's the regional accents of where I've lived, but I've only heard it prounounced "nix". – Thomas Owens♦ Aug 15 '11 at 15:17
5  
I'm not Linus Torvalds, but this is how he pronounces Linux. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Linus-pronounces-linux.ogg – Graham Lee Aug 15 '11 at 15:45
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up vote 4 down vote

I don't think it's really meant to be pronounced. Back when people could be bothered to write, we'd see something along the lines of "variants of UNIX" or "UNIX variants". I still use that when I write or talk. If you're talking to me and say "nix", I may ask you what sports have to do with the discussion. :)

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up vote 2 down vote

I would pronounce it as "any Unix or Unix-like variant". It's one of those things that really isn't meant to be spoken out loud.

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up vote 1 down vote

If I has using it in conversation or reading it out loud, I'd probably say "The nixes", meaning the different *nix variants.

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+1 for sarcastic irony! – Alger Aug 15 '11 at 21:27
up vote 0 down vote

I guess I subconsciously think POSIX actually, which is mostly what is implied when *nix is written

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you just have created a new question - how POSIX is pronounced – Sergey Aug 16 '11 at 5:53

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