View source for BSD/OS

{{Short description|Unix-like operating system}}
{{About|the proprietary Unix sold by BSDi|the open source Unix released by Bill Jolitz|386BSD}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2023}}
{{Infobox OS
| name = BSD/OS
| logo = BSD-OS.svg
| screenshot = 
| caption = 
| developer = [[Berkeley Software Design]], Inc. (1991–2001)<br>[[Wind River Systems]] (2001–2003)
| source_model = Source-available
| kernel_type = [[Monolithic Kernel|Monolithic]]
| supported_platforms = [[x86 architecture|x86]], [[SPARC]], [[PowerPC]]
| ui = [[Command-line interface]]
| family = [[Unix-like]] ([[Net/2]])
| released = BSD/386 1.0, {{Start date and age|1993|03}}
| latest_release_version = BSD/OS 5.1
| latest_release_date = {{Start date and age|2003}}
| latest_test_version = 
| latest_test_date = 
| marketing_target = [[Internet]] server applications
| programmed_in = [[C (programming language)|C]]
| prog_language = 
| language = [[English language|English]]
| updatemodel = 
| package_manager = 
| working_state = Discontinued
| license = Proprietary
| website = 
}}
'''BSD/OS''' is a [[Proprietary software|proprietary]] [[Unix]] [[operating system]] first released in 1993 as '''BSD/386'''. It was originally developed and sold by [[Berkeley Software Design]], Inc. (BSDi) and designed to be a [[Unix]] for [[Intel 386|386]]-based [[IBM PC–compatible|PCs]]. It was built off the Net/2 distribution of [[Berkeley Software Distribution|BSD]], to which the developers had previously contributed.<ref name=":0">{{Cite magazine |last=Levitt |first=Jason |last2=Schuman |first2=Evan |date=June 22, 1992 |title=For BSD Unix, It's Sayonara |url=https://www.tech-insider.org/unix/research/1992/0622.html |magazine=Open Systems Today}}</ref>

Eventually the operating system was also ported to support [[PowerPC]] and [[SPARC]] architectures, and consequently was retitled to BSD/OS as of version 2.0 (1995). In 2001, BSDi sold the rights of the OS to [[Wind River Systems]] who developed and released version 5.0 in 2003 before discontinuing the product.

==History==
BSDi was formed in 1991 by members of the [[Computer Systems Research Group]] (CSRG) at [[University of California, Berkeley|UC Berkeley]] to develop and sell a proprietary version of BSD Unix for [[PC compatible]] systems with [[Intel 386]] (or later) processors. This made use of work previously done by [[Bill Jolitz]] to port BSD to the PC platform. BSDi had distributed over 300 copies of the beta version of BSD/386 by August 1992.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Unix Labs' Berkeley Software Design Suit Finds Berkeley University in Disarray |url=https://www.tech-insider.org/usl-v-bsdi-ucb/research/1992/0806.html |access-date=2024-12-06 |website=www.tech-insider.org}}</ref>

BSD/386 1.0 was released in March 1993. The company sold licenses and support for it, taking advantage of terms in the [[BSD License]] which permit use of the BSD software in proprietary systems, as long the author is credited. The company in turn contributed code and resources to the development of non-proprietary BSD operating systems. In the meantime, Jolitz had left BSDi and independently released a [[free software]] BSD for PCs, called [[386BSD]]. The BSDi system features complete and thorough [[Man page|manpage]] documentation for the entire system, including complete syntax and argument explanations, examples, file usage, authors, and cross-references to other commands.

BSD/386 licenses (including [[source code]]) were priced at $995, lower than [[AT&T Corporation|AT&T]] [[UNIX System V]] source licenses, a fact highlighted in their advertisements.<ref name=McKusick>McKusick, M. K. (1999). Twenty Years of Berkeley Unix - From AT&T-Owned to Freely Redistributable. Retrieved July 27, 2006, from http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book/kirkmck.html</ref>  As part of the settlement of ''[[USL v. BSDi]]'', BSDI substituted code that had been written for the university's 4.4 BSD-Lite release for disputed code in their OS, effective with release 2.0. By the time of this release, the "386" designation had become dated, and BSD/386 was renamed "BSD/OS". Later releases of BSD/OS also support [[Sun Microsystems|Sun]] [[SPARC]]-based systems. BSD/OS 5.x versions are available for PowerPC too.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.windriver.com/news/press/news-386|title=Wind River Announces Product Rollout for Its BSD/OS UNIX-based Operating System}}</ref>

The marketing of BSD/OS became increasingly focused on [[Internet]] server applications. However, the increasingly tight market for [[Unix-like operating system|Unix-compatible software]] in the late 1990s and early 2000s hurt sales of BSD/OS. On one end of the market, it lacked the certification of [[the Open Group]] to bear the UNIX trademark, and the sales force and hardware support of the larger Unix vendors. Simultaneously, it lacked the negligible acquisition cost of the open source BSDs and [[Linux]]. BSD/OS was acquired by [[Wind River Systems]] in April 2001.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.windriver.com/news/press/pr.html?ID=436 |title=Press release: ''Wind River to Acquire BSDi Software Assets, Extending Development Platforms to Include Robust UNIX-based Operating Systems for Embedded Devices'' |access-date=2007-02-02 |archive-date=2020-09-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200919224218/https://www.windriver.com/news/press/pr.html?ID=436 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Wind River discontinued sales of BSD/OS at the end of 2003, with support terminated at the end of 2004.

==Releases==
{| class="wikitable"
! '''BSD/OS (BSDi) version'''
! '''Release date'''
|-
|BSD/386 (BSDi) 0.3.1
|1992, April 
|-
|BSD/386 (BSDi) 0.3.2
|1992, June
|-
|BSD/386 (BSDi) 1.0
|1993, March
|-
|BSD/386 (BSDi) 1.1
|1994, February
|-
|BSD/OS (BSDi) 2.0
|1995, January 
|-
|BSD/OS (BSDi) 2.0.1
|1995, June
|-
|BSD/OS (BSDi) 2.1
|1996, January 
|-
|BSD/OS (BSDi) 3.0
|1997, February 
|-
|BSD/OS (BSDi) 3.1
|1998, March 
|-
|BSD/OS (BSDi) 4.0
|1998, August 
|-
|BSD/OS (BSDi) 4.0.1
|1999, March 
|-
|BSD/OS (BSDi) 4.1
|1999, December
|-
|BSD/OS (BSDi) 4.2
|2000, November
|-
|BSD/OS (Wind River) 4.3
|2002, March 
|-
|BSD/OS (Wind River) 5.0
|2003, May 
|-
|BSD/OS (Wind River) 5.1
|2003, October 
|}

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/BSDOS2.0|title=BSD/OS 2.0|website=[[Internet Archive]]}}

{{Berkeley Software Distribution}}
{{Unix-like}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:BSD OS}}
[[Category:Berkeley Software Distribution]]
[[Category:Discontinued operating systems]]