The Linux kernel might not be “very UNIX-ish” but the GNU/Linux integrated system clearly adheres to the basic UNIX philosophy (multi-user, everything-is-a-file, userland shell, non-mandatory non-privileged GUI).
Not all OSes have these same foundational pillars. What I meant to express is that Linux does whereas others (as disjoint as Genera, Windows NT, BeOS Amiga) don't.
In that sense the original UNIX kernel was not very unix-ish either. The unix philosophy to a large degree exempts the kernel, as few people will be directly interacting with it during daily usage.
You're referring to /proc and (more recently) /sys I presume. I'm sure you're aware of Plan9 that takes the everything-is-a-file idea to the logical extreme using it as a universal namespace by means of the P9000 (?) protocol (going way off-topic here).
Yes i am aware, and i suspect the Linux devs were in part inspired by that (Linux may even support 9P, iirc).
Plan 9 was pretty much about taking the "everything is a file" thinking to its logical end point. Meaning that you could even manipulate individual GUI windows via the FS.
I was simply musing that Linux may have taken the concept further than the BSDs while still being "unix". I can't say i ever got the impression that Plan 9 was intended to be posix compatible for instance.
