What's a UNIX platform?

Question

I'm editing my website and it says that password protection per webpage is only available "on the UNIX platform". (for hosting customer's using the website's setup system called ImageCafe) What does this mean?

Answer 1

There are all kinds of different operating systems, specifically designed for different purposes.
Unix, Linux, Solaris, BSOD, Windows, MAC OSX, etc etc.

It just so happens that your website is specifically designed to run on a UNIX platform / operating system.

Answer 2

Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX™) is a computer operating system originally developed in the 1960s and 1970s by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and Douglas McIlroy. Today's Unix systems are split into various branches, developed over time by AT&T, as well as various commercial vendors and non-profit organizations.

The present owner of the trademark UNIX™ is The Open Group, an industry standards consortium. Only systems fully compliant with and certified to the Single UNIX Specification qualify as "UNIX™" (others are called "Unix system-like" or "Unix-like").

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Unix's influence in academic circles led to large-scale adoption (particularly of the BSD variant, originating from the University of California, Berkeley) of Unix by commercial startups, the most notable of which is Sun Microsystems. Today, in addition to certified Unix systems, Unix-like operating systems such as Linux, the Mac OS X and BSDs are commonly encountered.

Sometimes, Traditional Unix may be used to describe a Unix or an operating system that has the characteristics of either Version 7 Unix or UNIX System V.

Common UNIX like system today include Linux and Solaris.

Answer 3

The term 'UNIX platform' is computer jargon meaning hardware running the UNIX operating system.

Answer 4

This article in Webopedia explains Unix much better than I can.
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/U/UNIX.html