386BSD
RR...@ucf1vm.cc.ucf.edu
and at the end it said that the port was done at the University of CA. I
have heard rumors that it is available via ftp somewhere. My question is,
if it is available via ftp, what does one need to legally obtain a copy
besides ftp access? Thanks in advance!
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Reginald Reed -- Struggling Computer Science Student -- Does Bo Know Comp Sci??
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Conor P. Cahill
>Does anyone have information on this port? I scanned the DDJ article (1/91)
>and at the end it said that the port was done at the University of CA. I
>have heard rumors that it is available via ftp somewhere. My question is,
>if it is available via ftp, what does one need to legally obtain a copy
>besides ftp access? Thanks in advance!
4.4BSD will support the 386 architecture (although peripheral support will
be somewhat limited). To get it you need a SOURCE license (read this as
lots of $$ unless you are a university). To my knowledge there has been
no announcements of a commercial distribution of a binary product.
--
Conor P. Cahill (703)430-9247 Virtual Technologies, Inc.,
uunet!virtech!cpcahil 46030 Manekin Plaza, Suite 160
Sterling, VA 22170
Piercarlo Grandi
cpcahil> 4.4BSD will support the 386 architecture (although peripheral
cpcahil> support will be somewhat limited). To get it you need a SOURCE
cpcahil> license (read this as lots of $$ unless you are a university).
cpcahil> To my knowledge there has been no announcements of a commercial
cpcahil> distribution of a binary product.
Just because it is something I remember and it struck me as quite
notable, if you have a source license you can alos get a 4.2BSD (or
4.3BSD) port to the 286 (yes, *2*86) from Rice University. Since it is
fairly old, they probably have more drivers by now, and they should be
fairly compatible with those of 4.4BSD.
I remember there was a guy at YCB that has said that he was the one
person doing the 386 4.4BSD port -- I do not remember whom he was, but
if he is listening, he might find it nice to get in touch with the guys
who did the 286 port. Who knows, maybe the two can be merged and 4.4BSD
could run on 286s too.
--
Piercarlo Grandi | ARPA: pcg%uk.ac....@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk
Dept of CS, UCW Aberystwyth | UUCP: ...!mcsun!ukc!aber-cs!pcg
Penglais, Aberystwyth SY23 3BZ, UK | INET: p...@cs.aber.ac.uk
Pat Barron
>4.4BSD will support the 386 architecture (although peripheral support will
>be somewhat limited). To get it you need a SOURCE license (read this as
>lots of $$ unless you are a university). To my knowledge there has been
>no announcements of a commercial distribution of a binary product.
Mt Xinu has announced that they will be distributing a binary version of Mach
(as far as the user is concerned, it looks like 4.3BSD-tahoe) starting in
late January.
--Pat.
Sean Eric Fagan
>be somewhat limited). To get it you need a SOURCE license (read this as
>lots of $$ unless you are a university).
Note that CSRG is trying to make generic 4.4 "freely" available (that is,
workable without an AT&T license). Last I saw, they were doing very well.
And all the '386 specific pieces of the 386BSD are "freeware" (covered by
the Berkeley license, which is a very reasonable thing).
--
Sean Eric Fagan | "I made the universe, but please don't blame me for it;
s...@kithrup.COM | I had a bellyache at the time."
-----------------+ -- The Turtle (Stephen King, _It_)
Any opinions expressed are my own, and generally unpopular with others.
Dick Dunn
> Does anyone have information on this port? I scanned the DDJ article (1/91)
Essentially, yes. Bill Jolitz is the primary person responsible for the
work. He had a demo version at USENIX Anaheim (last June).
>...I have heard rumors that it is available via ftp somewhere...
No, at least not in its entirety. BSD remains, as it has for quite a
while, still subject to AT&T licensing. There are pieces of it which have
been freed, but not the whole thing. (They're working on it.)
--
Dick Dunn r...@ico.isc.com -or- ico!rcd Boulder, CO (303)449-2870
...Mr. Natural says, "Use the right tool for the job."
Richard Foulk
>>and at the end it said that the port was done at the University of CA. I
>>have heard rumors that it is available via ftp somewhere. My question is,
>>if it is available via ftp, what does one need to legally obtain a copy
>>besides ftp access? Thanks in advance!
>
>4.4BSD will support the 386 architecture (although peripheral support will
>be somewhat limited). To get it you need a SOURCE license (read this as
>lots of $$ unless you are a university). To my knowledge there has been
>no announcements of a commercial distribution of a binary product.
The DDJ article said that the 4.3 port was functional, and they seemed
to say that it is now free of AT&T encumbrances. They plan to make the
source available to the masses as soon as possible.
They promised a number of future articles in DDJ covering the nitty-gritty
details of the port. This first article was pretty interesting.
--
Richard Foulk ric...@pegasus.com
Christopher Dow
Hmmm..... I was told that 4.4BSD woudl _not_ require a Unix
source license, since there was a plan to not use any AT&T source.....
Chris Dow IntelliGenetics
Software Engineer 700 East El Camino Real
icbmnet: 37 22' 39" N, 122 3' 32" W Mountain View, Ca. 94040
d...@presto.ig.com (415) 962-7320
Dick Dunn
ric...@pegasus.com (Richard Foulk) writes:
> The DDJ article said that the 4.3 port was functional, and they seemed
> to say that it is now free of AT&T encumbrances. They plan to make the
> source available to the masses as soon as possible.
and d...@presto.ig.com (Christopher Dow) writes:
> Hmmm..... I was told that 4.4BSD woudl _not_ require a Unix
> source license, since there was a plan to not use any AT&T source.....
386 BSD is *not* free of AT&T encumbrances--at least, not according to the
folks at Berkeley. (One should be a little careful, when reporting what
one "was told", to say who told it.:-)
The following two statements are "known" based on late-December info:
- The 386-specific kernel code for 4.4 is unencumbered.
- The 4.4 kernel is currently *not* entirely unencumbered; it is
still subject to AT&T licensing.
The following is a reasonable inference based on what I know:
- While there is work in progress (has been for some time) to
free BSD code from AT&T licensing, it is unlikely that 4.4 will
be such a freed system...the discussions about when 4.4 will
appear suggest "reasonably soon" relative to the amount of
"freeing" work which remains.
(Also please note that I'm using the word "free" relative to AT&T licensing
constraints; I'm *not* talking about zero-cost.)
Of course, freed or not, it would be possible for some large organization
to produce a 386-based BSD binary product as soon as Berkeley starts
making the sources available under their usual terms. (I say "large
organization" because it requires a company with big, expensive AT&T
license to resell UNIX binaries.) But I haven't heard of anyone who's
announced an intention to do so.
The next likely source of Good Information about the progress of BSD, the
386 code, 4.4, freeing, etc., is the BSD BoF at USENIX in two weeks.