Editing 386BSD (section)

== History and releases ==
{{Further|History of the Berkeley Software Distribution}}
386BSD was written mainly by Berkeley alumni [[Lynne Jolitz]] and [[William Jolitz]]. William had considerable experience with prior BSD releases while at the [[University of California, Berkeley]] (2.8 and 2.9BSD) and both contributed code developed at Symmetric Computer Systems during the 1980s, to Berkeley. William worked at Berkeley on porting 4.3BSD-Reno and later 4.3BSD&nbsp;Net/2 to the Intel 80386 for the university. 4.3BSD Net/2 was an incomplete non-operational release, with portions withheld by the University of California as ''encumbered'' (i.e. subject to an [[AT&T UNIX]] [[source code]] license). 386BSD does not contain any original Unix code.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=History of Linux |url=https://pld.cs.luc.edu/courses/412/spr24/mnotes/linux.html |access-date=2024-11-22 |website=pld.cs.luc.edu}}</ref> 

The port began in 1989 and the first, incomplete traces of the port can be found in 4.3BSD&nbsp;Net/2 of 1991. The port was made possible as [[Keith Bostic (software engineer)|Keith Bostic]], partly influenced by [[Richard Stallman]],<ref>Sam Williams, "Free as in Freedom", March 2002, O'Reilly [https://www.oreilly.com/openbook/freedom/ch09.html chapter 9] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220613160657/https://www.oreilly.com/openbook/freedom/ch09.html|date=2022-06-13}}</ref> had started to remove proprietary [[AT&T]] out of BSD in 1988.<ref>Eric S. Raymond. 2003. [http://www.faqs.org/docs/artu/ch02s01.html Origins and History of Unix, 1969-1995] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150610225448/http://www.faqs.org/docs/artu/ch02s01.html|date=2015-06-10}} The Art of Unix Programming. Chapter 2. History.</ref> The port was first released to the public in March 1992 (version 0.0<ref name="0.0-release" />) - based on portions of the 4.3BSD&nbsp;Net/2 release coupled with additional code (see "Missing Pieces I and II", ''[[Dr. Dobb's Journal]]'', May–June 1992) - and in a much more usable version on July 14, 1992 (version 0.1<ref name="0.1-release">{{cite web |title=386BSD 0.1 Release Notes |url=https://groups.google.com/forum/#!original/comp.unix.bsd/zA8Jl89HSRo/DqMzaUUZ7wYJ}}</ref>). 

386BSD proved popular, with it receiving 250,000 downloads from the [[File Transfer Protocol|FTP]] server it was hosted on.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-10-20 |title=History of FreeBSD – Part 2: BSDi and USL Lawsuits |url=https://klarasystems.com/articles/history-of-freebsd-part-2-bsdi-and-usl-lawsuits/ |access-date=2023-11-24 |website=Klara Inc |language=en-US}}</ref> It was helped partly by the porting process with code being extensively documented in a 17-part series written by Lynne and William in ''[[Dr. Dobb's Journal]]'' beginning in January 1991.<ref>{{Cite web |title=386BSD |url=https://www.386bsd.org/releases/porting-unix-to-the-386-the-final-step-running-light-with-386bsd-article |access-date=2023-11-24 |website=www.386bsd.org}}</ref>

In late 1994, a finished version 386BSD Release 1.0 was distributed by ''Dr. Dobb's Journal'' on [[CD-ROM]] only due to the immense size (600 [[megabyte|MB]]) of the release (the ''"386BSD Reference CD-ROM"'') and was a best-selling CDROM for three years (1994–1997). 386BSD Release 1.0 contained a completely new [[Kernel (operating system)|kernel]] design and implementation, and began the process to incorporate recommendations made by earlier Berkeley designers that had never been attempted in BSD.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-05-23 |title=The Fun with 386BSD |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180523112805/https://jolitz.telemuse.net/2lgj/on386bsd |access-date=2025-04-13 |website=web.archive.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Jolitz |first=Lynne Greer |title=Source code secrets: the basic kernel |last2=Jolitz |first2=William Frederick |date=1996 |publisher=Peer-to-Peer Communications |isbn=978-1-57398-026-5 |series=Operating system source code secrets |location=San Jose, Calif |pages=487}}</ref>

On August 5, 2016, an update was pushed to the 386BSD [[GitHub|GitHub repository]] by developer Ben Jolitz, named version 2.0.<ref>{{Cite web |date=9 October 2016 |title=After 22 Years, 386BSD Gets An Update - Slashdot |url=https://bsd.slashdot.org/story/16/10/09/0230203/after-22-years-386bsd-gets-an-update |access-date=2017-03-14 |website=bsd.slashdot.org |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=386bsd/386bsd |url=https://github.com/386bsd/386bsd |access-date=2017-03-14 |website=GitHub |language=en}}</ref> According to the official website, Release 2.0 "built upon the modular framework to create self-healing components."<ref>{{Cite web |title=386BSD Official website |url=https://386bsd.org/about |access-date=2021-03-13}}</ref> However, {{as of|2017|March|16|lc=y|df=US}}, almost all of the documentation remains the same as version 1.0, and a [[changelog]] was not available. 

=== FreeBSD and NetBSD ===
After the release of 386BSD 0.1,<ref name="0.1-release" /> a group of users began collecting bug fixes and enhancements, releasing them as an unofficial ''[[patch (computing)|patchkit]]''. Due to differences of opinion between the Jolitzes and the patchkit maintainers over the future direction and release schedule of 386BSD,<ref name="386bsd-faq"/> the maintainers of the patchkit founded the [[FreeBSD]] project in 1993 to continue their work.<ref name="Auto7E-1"/> Around the same time, the [[NetBSD]] project was founded by a different group of 386BSD users, with the aim of unifying 386BSD with other strands of BSD development into one multi-platform system. Both projects continue to this day.

The FreeBSD [[website]] at the time claimed that 386BSD suffered from "neglect". However, the 386BSD site claimed that this is not true:<ref name=":0" />

{{Quote|text=This whole "FreeBSD roots" is completely fictitious, and invented to cover the wholesale theft of the 386BSD user base.}}