[soneil]

It's a common way to express "things that are unix-like" and avoiding the pedanticism of what is & isn't an actual UNIX™

[jehb]

I tend to use *nix for things that are UNIX-like. I think of un*x in the older sense from the other parent "it's not actually UNIX and f*ck the trademark" but I'm not sure that dichotomy in my mind is useful anymore.