[ANSWER] What is *BSD?
Jesus Monroy Jr
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.
----------------------------------------------------------------
For more information please read the FAQ by Dave Burgess for
386bsd and related.
----------------------------------------------------------------
___________________________________________________________________________
Jesus Monroy Jr jmo...@netcom.com
Zebra Research
/386BSD/device-drivers /fd /qic /clock /documentation
___________________________________________________________________________
John F. Woods
> [A big long screed that, as usual, appears to refer to an alternate universe]
Here are some alternate answers to this question:
>>> What is
>>> freebsd, 386bsd, bsd386, netbsd, bsd4.4 ...
4.3BSD
The popular UNIX variant by the Computer Systems Research Group
(CSRG) of the University of California at Berkeley (UCB). Based
a long time ago on "UNIX 32/V" (Bell Labs' Version 7 for the VAX),
it had evolved into a substantially different creature, but still
had key pieces of AT&T code buried in it (chiefly in machine-dependant
kernel modules).
NET/2
Also known as net-2, or "Networking Release 2". This was a release
of a late version of 4.3BSD which had the AT&T-written code removed,
released chiefly to make public the latest version of the networking
code. NET/2 formed the basis of several ports, some of which are
seen below, and is available for FTP from many places, including
ftp.uu.net (in /packages/bsd-sources/). (NET/1 was a late version of
"4.3BSD-Reno", and did contain AT&T code.) Note that there is a suit
filed by USL against BSDI and UCB over this code, alleging copyright
infringement and trade-secret violations. The case has yet to come
to trial, but in pre-trial motions, USL hasn't generally fared as well
as they might have hoped.
BSD 4.4 (or 4.4 BSD)
The latest, and possibly last, release of UNIX from UCB. The CSRG
is being disbanded, as the money for OS research is drying up.
Depending on the outcome of the USL vs. UCB suit, there may be a
"4.4 BSD Lite" release which will be 4.4 BSD without AT&T code;
this assumes that any members of the now-disbanded CSRG group feel
like going to the effort then. Until then, you need an AT&T
source license to get 4.4BSD, just as you did to get 4.3BSD.
BSD386
A port of NET/2 offered by BSDI. Most of the founding members of
BSDI were members of CSRG; the initial BSDI port filled in the
missing pieces of NET/2 with work by them, William and Lynn Jolitz,
and several other people on the Internet. BSDI sells a commercially
supported OS with source for about $1000, with cheaper binary-only
licenses available. They have contributed some of their work to the
general BSD-porting community, but most of it they hold proprietary
(so they'll have something to sell).
386BSD
A port of NET.2 done by William and Lynn Jolitz, written up in a
series of articles in Doctor Dobbs Journal. The official release
was given a version number of 0.1; it was supplemented by a series
of patches, maintained by an independant group that came to be called
the patchkit coordinators. 0.2 has been promised for a long time,
but nothing has been heard about it for some time, and most people
have given up waiting; the Jolitzes became increasingly erratic in
public postings and then disappeared from the public eye.
NetBSD
The first group to decide the patchkit process was unwieldy and that
386BSD 0.2 wasn't going to happen in this life. The original 386BSD
port had a lot of needless dependancies on the 386 architecture in
areas of the code that should have been machine independant; most of
that crud has been replaced, and NetBSD currently runs on HP300s,
Amigas, SPARCs, some Macintoshes*, (a couple of other architectures
I forget offhand), and of course the 386. The first release of NetBSD
was numbered 0.8, the currently-available release is 0.9, and if
you're adventurous, the work-in-progress version (NetBSD-current) is
available for FTP or SUP from various places.
MacBSD *
A port of NetBSD 0.8 to some Macintosh models. Since they're directly
accessing hardware, it doesn't (yet) run on all Macintoshes (since
Apple moves around the hardware definitions freely). Its source
appears in the NetBSD-current tree, but I'm not sure if that copy
builds yet (it may not have tracked all the NetBSD changes); it's
also available separately (and buildable, of course).
FreeBSD
What the patchkit coordinators decided to call their work when *they*
decided the patchkit process was unwieldy and that 386BSD 0.2 wasn't
going to happen in this life. FreeBSD 1.0 is the current version,
after a sequence of four trial versions (alpha, beta, gamma, epsilon).
A Digression on NetBSD versus FreeBSD:
Innumerable attempts have been made to describe the difference between
NetBSD and FreeBSD; NetBSD is dedicated to a "stable" kernel, and
FreeBSD is oriented toward research -- or is it the other way around?
NetBSD incorporates and experiments with bizarre, new, untested
features before FreeBSD, except of course for the bizarre, new,
untested features that FreeBSD has tried first. NetBSD is lemony
fresh, FreeBSD leaves a fresh minty aftertaste. And so it goes.
The difference between NetBSD and FreeBSD is the people who work on
each of them. There are some people in the NetBSD working group who
are polar opposites to some people on FreeBSD (and not even on any
particular issues, that I've seen), but there are also a substantial
number of people working in *both* groups. These people all work on
what they want to work on, and if they only work on one of the two
big variants, that's the one that gets their work first.
There are people in the NetBSD camp to whom machine independance is
very important; hence the NetBSD source base is ahead of FreeBSD in
having 386 dependancies ripped out. There are people in the FreeBSD
camp to whom ease of installation is important, so FreeBSD has a
nifty installation tool and NetBSD just sort of clunks along.
On the question of who wants stability ("I do, I do!"), I suspect
this "distinction" comes from a series of historical accidents:
one impetus behind the NetBSD camp was the "patch of the day"
circus the patchkit scheme had become; instead they preferred to
have occasional checkpoint releases that were reasonably stable
(hence 0.8 and 0.9); hence the misperception that "stability" was
an overriding goal for NetBSD as opposed to 386BSD/FreeBSD. However,
the NetBSD camp was making more substantial changes to the kernel
(for machine independance and general fixes) and those people who
regularly pick up the NetBSD-current sources often find that the
instantaneous sources don't build, which happened (somewhat) less
often with the patchkit releases, hence the misperception that
NetBSD was less stable than 386BSD/FreeBSD.
The above is written from the viewpoint of someone who uses NetBSD and who
has contributed a couple of minor fixes but isn't involved in the internal
politics of the development group; nor do I regularly post multi-kilobyte
screeds about driver software I can't release because aliens haven't used
the radio receivers in my head to give me permission yet.
Theo de Raadt
> [...] and NetBSD currently runs on HP300s,
> Amigas, SPARCs, some Macintoshes*, (a couple of other architectures
> I forget offhand), and of course the 386.
Here's a more complete list:
i386: this port is quite stable and complete, as many of you know...
CONTACT: netbsd...@sun-lamp.cs.berkeley.edu
hp300: a 68030 box. this port is very stable. biggest problem as
I understand it are the bootblocks.
CONTACT: myc...@duality.gnu.ai.mit.edu (duality is a hp300
running NetBSD that stays up 30+ days at a time..)
amiga: for amiga3000's, with amiga4000's being worked on. This port
is very stable too. the sunos-compat code is in this kernel,
so it can run sunos sun3 executables.
CONTACT: m...@sun-lamp.cs.berkeley.edu
mac: for some 68030/68020 models. work in progress to increase the
list of compatible machines. this port is fairly stable as
I understand it.
CONTACT: fin...@sun-lamp.cs.berkeley.edu
sparc: based on torek's sparc code in bsd4.4, this runs on sun4c
machines, ie. ss1/ss2/ss1+/ipc/ipc/slc/elc. it runs sunos
binaries, but is still buggy.
CONTACT: der...@fsa.ca
pc532: the pc532 is a National Semiconductor 32532-based board
developed by a group of people in a usenet newsgroup.
a fairly stable kernel but lacks a working scsi driver.
CONTACT: ph...@sun-lamp.cs.berkeley.edu
sun3: the sun3 code (for the sun3/50 and 60 models first) is
ready to go single user. device drivers are lacking, but
some of them can be leveraged from the sparc and amiga
ports.
CONTACT: gl...@sun-lamp.cs.berkeley.edu
pmax: also known as the "decstation", ie. the 3000 and 5000 series.
the code was donated independently, but is what is in bsd4.4.
It has not yet been integrated into the tree and is looking
for a few good kernel-slaves..
CONTACT: der...@fsa.ca
da30: a custom VME-style 68030 board, I think. From what I've heard
this is pretty stable.
CONTACT: pau...@sun-lamp.cs.berkeley.edu
i've heard about/talked to a few other people are working on various
other ports.
Charles Hannum
In article <jmonroyC...@netcom.com> jmo...@netcom.com (Jesus
Monroy Jr) writes:
BSD386 is a commercial version of the PD (public Domain)
OS selling for about $1000.
No derivative of UNIX has ever been `public domain'. Some versions
are `free', but there is a big difference.
NETBSD is another offering sponsored by persons at Berkeley.
There is only one person at Berkeley actively working on it that I
know of. The other people are at different sites.
NET refers to their decision to make the Operating System
more "network" oriented.
Not at all. `Net' refers to the fact that it's a product of the
network community.
FREEBSD [...]. 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.
This may have been their original goal, but perhaps it is time to ask
them for an update.
The 0.1 release is the basis for [...], Xfree86 and
numerous other packages.
XFree86 is a completely separate effort, and has very little to do
with the specific OS it is running on.
Joshua Geller
> BSD 4.4 (or 4.4 BSD)
> The latest, and possibly last, release of UNIX from UCB. The CSRG
> is being disbanded, as the money for OS research is drying up.
> Depending on the outcome of the USL vs. UCB suit, there may be a
> "4.4 BSD Lite" release which will be 4.4 BSD without AT&T code;
> this assumes that any members of the now-disbanded CSRG group feel
> like going to the effort then. Until then, you need an AT&T
> source license to get 4.4BSD, just as you did to get 4.3BSD.
I am given to understand that 4.4lite is to be a binary dist of 4.4 bsd.
I suppose it is possible I am mistaken about this. anyone know?
josh
Ty Sarna
> In article <34...@ksr.com> j...@ksr.com (John F. Woods) writes:
> > [...] and NetBSD currently runs on HP300s,
> > Amigas, SPARCs, some Macintoshes*, (a couple of other architectures
> > I forget offhand), and of course the 386.
>
> Here's a more complete list:
> amiga: for amiga3000's, with amiga4000's being worked on. This port
> is very stable too. the sunos-compat code is in this kernel,
> so it can run sunos sun3 executables.
> CONTACT: m...@sun-lamp.cs.berkeley.edu
Correction:
It also runs on 2500's, and 500's & 2000's (with an MMU-equipped
accelerator). [and probably accelerated MMU-equipped A1000's, though
they're very few and I don't believe it's been tried]. SCSI currently
works on the A3000 built-in, A2091, and GVP Series II controllers.
--
Ty Sarna "Don Johnson is back -- back in time, and battling
drug-trafficking dinosaurs. Don Johnson -is-
tsa...@endicor.com Jurassic Narc. Tuesdays at 8; 7 Central & Mountain"
David E. Wexelblat
> ======================
With yet another wrong answer...
>
>>> What is
>>> freebsd, 386bsd, bsd386, netbsd, bsd4.4 ...
>>>
>>> Is there a short description of each someplace?
>>>
>
> 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".
XFree86 and BSD-du-jour have basically nothing to do with each other.
XFree86 was, in fact, started on commercial SVR3/4 OSs. About the time
we were planning the release, 386BSD and Linux were starting to become
popular, with some early ports of X11R5. The people working on those
ports were invited to join what became XFree86.
Please also try to learn the concept of "Public Domain". There is almost
nothing PD actualyy distributed these days. What IS distributed is
Freely Redistributable Copyrighted Software (i.e. FreeWare) of one flavor
or another.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
> For more information please read the FAQ by Dave Burgess for
> 386bsd and related.
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
Good advice; I suggest you take it.
>
>___________________________________________________________________________
>Jesus Monroy Jr jmo...@netcom.com
>Zebra Research
>/386BSD/device-drivers /fd /qic /clock /documentation
>___________________________________________________________________________
>
--
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AIB Software, Inc., 46030 Manekin Plaza, Suite 160, Dulles, VA 20166
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Mail regarding XFree86 should be sent to <xfr...@physics.su.oz.au>
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