[AUUG-Talk]: Random history question: why "level 6"?

[Chris Maltby]

On Wed, Dec 07, 2011 at 02:41:16PM +1000, Warren Toomey wrote:
> Just a quick Unix history question. Looking through the old AUUGNs
> and the old tapes I have, I see references to Unix level 6 and level 7.
> But elsewhere in the world they are called 6th Edition or V6, 7th Edition
> or V7. Why did the Australian community call them level 6 and level 7?
> Any idea when the terms originate?

Warren,

I have no idea. If pressed I would blame it on Ian Johnstone for no
particularly good reason. It may have been that some other OS around
at the time used the word "level" to describe new major releases and
the terminology was borrowed. The word "edition" is pretty unusual in
that context as well, except that there were editions of the manual
rather than a formal release schedule of the underlying software.

Chris