Berkeley Software Distribution
Berkeley Software Distribution is a derivative of the Unix operating system that was created by and is distributed by the University of California, Berkeley. The first official release of "Berkeley UNIX" was in 1977.[1] Other derivatives of the original BSD Unix such as FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD are also collectively known as "the BSDs." BSD Unix and its derivitives have had a profound influence in the architecture and design of future modern operating systems, from Linux to Mac OS X to Microsoft Windows (especially Windows NT).
History
note: for the history of Unix before Berkeley see the History section of the Unix article
In the mid 1970s the Berkeley campus of the University of California became a hotbed of activity in the budding world of Unix operating system development. When one of the original creators of Unix (Ken Thompson) taught there during a sabbatical in 1975-1976[1] this also encouraged students at the University to hack away on a brand-new, revolutionary OS (operating system).
In 1977 the first Berkeley UNIX version was released, from a lab run by a grad student named Bill Joy (who would subsequently become one of the 'big names' in Unix and Computer history in general when he co-founded Sun Microsystems).
BSD Today
Today the most popular examples of BSD Unix are the three 'top tier' descendants:
- FreeBSD started life partially as an outgrowth of the 'Unofficial 386BSD Patchkit'. Having its roots in 386/BSD (incedentally the first version of BSD to run on the Intel 386 processor)[2] FreeBSD is generally known for its performance on the x86 architecture, however it has since branched out to other architectures as well.[3]
- NetBSD, the variant of BSD that is known for its portability. NetBSD carries the repuatation of being able to "run on anything," and its homepage prominently touts "Of course it runs NetBSD."[4]
- OpenBSD is commonly known as one of the most secure releases of Unix to date, due to full code audits the project has done and several important aspects of its design. Also notable are its developers' adherence to proactive security and the operating system's integrated cryptography. OpenBSD's homepage reflects their pride in security: "Only two remote holes in the default install, in more than 10 years!"[5]
BSD Licenses
See main article: Berkeley Software Distribution licenses
The BSD family of licenses are considered "Permissive licenses," meaning users and developers are granted complete control (almost to the level of being in the public domain) over software that is derived from the original BSD Licensed software.
Related Topics
Subtopics
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Origins and History of Unix, 1969-1995" (retreived 07-April-2007).
- ↑ "386BSD" (Retreived 14-April-2007).
- ↑ "About the FreeBSD Project" (Retrieved 11-April-2007).
- ↑ "NetBSD Homepage" (Retrieved 07-April-2007).
- ↑ "OpenBSD Homepage" (Retrieved 11-April-2007).