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From: jmonroy@netcom.com (Jesus Monroy Jr)
Subject: [ANSWER] What is *BSD?
Message-ID: <jmonroyCG7wED.77x@netcom.com>
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest)
Date: Tue, 9 Nov 1993 09:15:49 GMT
Lines: 102
A very recent question
======================
>> What is
>> freebsd, 386bsd, bsd386, netbsd, bsd4.4 ...
>>
>> Is there a short description of each someplace?
>>
DEfacto known as *bsd - the five previously listed
acronyms are the current renditions and off shoots of
the infamous UNIX Computer Operating System from AT&T.
As a matter of reference all the current version listed
above derive the base code (and existence) from the
very popular UCB (University of California Berkeley)
variant of UNIX, BSD 4.3.
The original BSD stood for Berkeley Software Distribution.
The OSes are listed in chronological order of introduction
to the Usenet community.
BSD386
------
BSD386, an offering by BSDI, is based in part on work done
by William and Lynn Jolitz. BSDI members were part of the
CSRG (Computer System Research Group) at Berkeley (UCB).
BSD386 is a commercial version of the PD (public Domain)
OS selling for about $1000.
BSD stands for Berkeley Software Design - in this case.
386 references the commercially popular CPU by Intel of
a similar name.
386BSD
------
386BSD is the public domain version offered by William and
Lynn Jolitz. It is intended to foster new research and aid
in classroom instructions to OSes in general.
386 references the commercially popular CPU by Intel of
a similar name.
BSD doesn't stand for anything in particular. (as far as I
know)
NETBSD
------
NETBSD is another offering sponsored by persons at Berkeley.
Their intent was to make a more stable and more "BSD" type
OS than William and Lynn intend.
NET refers to their decision to make the Operating System
more "network" oriented.
FREEBSD
-------
FREEBSD is yet another off shoot of the original work done
by William and Lynn Jolitz. The group was formed via a
charter. Their intent was to continue to offer patches
and assistance to the *BSD community as need for their
version of *BSD, until the Jolitzs finish the new version
of 386BSD.
BSD 4.4
-------
BSD 4.4 is the official UCB release of their variant of the
UNIX computer operating system. It has many new features.
MACBSD
------
MACBSD is a port of the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD)
version of the Unix operating system to the Macintosh.
An alpha version was released in early September 1993.
It's basis for code was NetBSD.
As you may have noticed the Jolitz are mentioned in just
about every section. Since the original release 0.0, and
before, USL (UNIX System Laboratory) and BSDI have been in court.
USL contends that BSDI and UCB have violated the copyright
agreement for UNIX. The release of 0.0 sparked excitement
of the *BSD community. 0.0 was followed up by 0.1.
The 0.1 release is the basis for NETbsd, Freebsd, MACBSD
PK (The Unofficial Patchkit), Xfree86 and numerous other packages.
Many pieces of PD software were ported via the "0.1 + PK".
BSD386 and 386BSD, both, derive about 70% of their code from
the UCB "NET/2" release. The NET/2 release is the basis
for the legal injunction between USL, BSDI and UCB.
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For more information please read the FAQ by Dave Burgess for
386bsd and related.
----------------------------------------------------------------
___________________________________________________________________________
Jesus Monroy Jr jmonroy@netcom.com
Zebra Research
/386BSD/device-drivers /fd /qic /clock /documentation
___________________________________________________________________________