NetBSD

NetBSD is a free, open-source, Unix-like operating system that was first published in 1993. NetBSD began as a fork of 386BSD v0.1, a free operating system developed by Bill and Lynne Jolitz.

The NetBSD project was organized by computer programmers at the University of California at Berkeley. Many people at Berkeley and around the world contributed to the first release of NetBSD, v0.8. Three contributors—Jordan Hubbard, Nate Williams, and Rodney Grimes—went on to spearhead another BSD-based operating system, FreeBSD, in 1993. Theo de Raadt, a founding member of the NetBSD development team, was ejected from the NetBSD project in 1994; he began work on a derivative operating system, OpenBSD, in 1995.

NetBSD, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD continue to be developed and maintained by volunteers from around the world, who write original source code and incorporate elements of other free software projects. NetBSD has developed into a unique operating system, distinguished by its support for a wide range of computer architectures.

Quotes about NetBSD

• NetBSD is currently 386BSD 0.1, with lots of patches applied. … It, like 386BSD, is intended to be used for research.

  Some could look at NetBSD as simply an interim release of 386BSD. We look it as more, and therefore have named it differently. The new name and version number reflect two of our goals for NetBSD: an escape from the political wars surrounding what we consider a wonderful operating system, and the rapid development of a stable release which we would consider of "production quality." …

  We intend to integrate free, positive changes from whatever sources will provide them, providing that they are well thought-out and increase the usability of the system. This includes integrating changes from 386BSD 0.2 when it appears, as well as from 4.4BSD, and perhaps even going back to Net/2 in order to re-integrate support for other architectures ….

  Above all, we hope to create a stable and accessible system, and to be responsive to the needs and desires of NetBSD users, because it is for and because of them that NetBSD exists.

  • From Chris G. Demetriou's announcement of the first release of NetBSD. Posted on 19 April 1993 to the Usenet newsgroups comp.os.386bsd.misc, comp.os.386bsd.announce, and comp.unix.bsd.
• The demands of keeping a full-time job meant that Jolitz could not devote the time needed to keep up with the flood of incoming bug fixes and enhancements to 386/BSD [sic]. So, within a few months of the release of 386/BSD, a group of avid 386/BSD users formed the NetBSD group to pool their collective resources to help maintain and later enhance the system. Their releases became known as the NetBSD distribution. The NetBSD group chose to emphasize the support of as many platforms as possible and continued the research style development done by the CSRG. Until 1998, their distribution was done solely over the Net; no distribution media was available. Their group continues to target primarily the hardcore technical users.
  • McKusick, Marshall Kirk (January 1999). "Twenty Years of Berkeley Unix: From AT&T-Owned to Freely Redistributable". in DiBona, Chris; Ockman, Sam; Stone, Mark. Open Sources: Voices from the Open Source Revolution. O'Reilly & Associates. ISBN 1-56592-582-3. 

See also

• Berkeley Software Distribution
• FreeBSD
• Unix

External links

• Official website
• Encyclopedic article on NetBSD on Wikipedia