With regard to "Un*x", the Wikipedia text is... imprecise[0].
The asterisk character in this context/usage is not used as a wildcard/glob but as a censoring device[3], in a manner similar to: "Don't censor f*ck on HN."
In the case of "Un*x" the motivation is not one of propriety but of proprietary--it was motivated by matters of legality (real or imagined) in relation to trademarks.
AIUI at the time UNIX(TM) was a trademark and it was thought by some that in order to avoid potential legal issues it was required to always include the TM superscript in order to avoid the wrath of the trademark owners for trademark infringement/generic-ism.
But as "Un*x" is not "UNIX"[4], the reasoning went, no trademark attribution was required.
Anyway, that's why when referring to "***/L*nux" I’ve (very) recently taken to calling it "***/L*nux", not wanting to infringe on Linus's trademark and all...
----
[0] The Wikipedia text doesn't really fully represent/match the text of the cited reference[1][2]:
"Used to refer to the Unix operating system [...] in writing, but avoiding the need for the ugly ™ typography [...] lawyers now say that the requirement for the trademark postfix has no legal force [...]"
The asterisk character in this context/usage is not used as a wildcard/glob but as a censoring device[3], in a manner similar to: "Don't censor f*ck on HN."
In the case of "Un*x" the motivation is not one of propriety but of proprietary--it was motivated by matters of legality (real or imagined) in relation to trademarks.
AIUI at the time UNIX(TM) was a trademark and it was thought by some that in order to avoid potential legal issues it was required to always include the TM superscript in order to avoid the wrath of the trademark owners for trademark infringement/generic-ism.
But as "Un*x" is not "UNIX"[4], the reasoning went, no trademark attribution was required.
Anyway, that's why when referring to "***/L*nux" I’ve (very) recently taken to calling it "***/L*nux", not wanting to infringe on Linus's trademark and all...
----
[0] The Wikipedia text doesn't really fully represent/match the text of the cited reference[1][2]:
"Used to refer to the Unix operating system [...] in writing, but avoiding the need for the ugly ™ typography [...] lawyers now say that the requirement for the trademark postfix has no legal force [...]"
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix-like#cite_note-jargonfile...
[2] http://catb.org/jargon/html/U/UN-asterisk-X.html
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterisk#Censorship
[4] Coincidentally, GNU is also Not Unix: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU#Name