What is the meaning of *nix?

Question

What is the meaning of *nix, and what is its relation with Ruby?

Just saw that in an interview question... I think there is something to do with UNIX distros, but I

Answer 1

*nix just means operating systems that are like the old workhorse Unix. Some examples include Linux, FreeBSD, and Mac OS X (its kernel, Darwin, is based on BSD).

The main relation between *nix and Ruby is just a pragmatic one; most Ruby developers seem to prefer to work on Unix-like OSes (typically Linux or Mac OS X). There's no official relationship, and it's quite possible to work with Ruby on non-*nix OSes like Windows.