NetBSD Celebrates Its 10th Anniversary

jschauma writes "This week marks the tenth anniversary of the beginning of development of the NetBSD Operating System. The very first commit to the NetBSD source tree (src/Makefile) was by Chris Demetriou on Friday 21 March, 1993. Parties are being held in various cities around the world, see the press release for more details. Happy 10th Birthday, NetBSD!"

Comments

10th anniversary!

[sulli]

and 9 year, 364 day anniversary of dying

Re:10th anniversary!

[asparagus]

And may it keep on dying in the future.

NetBSD runs on 17 or so processor architectures and 50+ platforms. A pretty impressive feat, especially when you consider all the massive changes that have made it into the industry in the past ten years.

Kudos to the Net and other BSD teams. Keep that code clean and portable!

Birthday sale at linuxjewellery.com

[HeroicAutobot]

I'm not affiliated with them in any way (I swear!), but I noticed that the Linux Jewellery Store is having a BSD Birthday Sale.

If you're looking for Beastie to add to you (non-virtual) desktop, this is probably the time to get one.

Re:Birthday sale at linuxjewellery.com

[Grizzlysmit]

The Linux Jewellery store? now I've seen it all, but does the Jewellery run Linux?

Now I can get my girlfriend tux ear rings, or should I get a girlfriend first?

I have a question

[soorma_bhopali]

Linux has also been around for 10 years. And just like NetBSD there are various other open source alternatives to linux. Why then has Linux grown so much popular in the corporate world? Is it because of GPL or because Linux is superior to these other alternatives?

Re:I have a question

[grub]

When Linux was first coming from the womb, the *BSD folks were embroiled in a lawsuit regarding AT&T code (IIRC). The uncertainty of the *BSD code's 'freeness' & future along with the timing of Linux's initial release were perfect for Linux.

I still love *BSD, though. :)

Re:I have a question

[Jungle guy]

When NetBSD started, back in 1992/1993, there was a huge lawsuit against a company called BSDI (that used the BSD code to develop a proprietary operating system and called it Unix). They were sued by USL, a spun-off company formed by AT&T that had rights over Unix. To make a setlement, professors from University of California developed what they called 4BSD - an operating system without the files that were proprerty of USL. FreeBSD an NetBSD had to resynchronize their trees with 4BSD to avoid lawsuits.

The project lost precious time in its early infancy, while Linux progressed at warp speed (people say that Linus was REALY active those days). Linux was also seen as a haven for possible lawsuits as it was writen from scratch, even tough it was technically inferior in the early days. But, as the community around it grew faster, soon it gained momentum and critical mass. Its use of GNU software was also important. The whole story is in the book Open Sources.

Re:I have a question

[cbv]

Why then has Linux grown so much popular in the corporate world? Is it because of GPL or because Linux is superior to these other alternatives?

Because the developers on both sides come from a different "corner".

While the various *BSDs were originally develop'd at Universities, the intention was learning how to do it, and how to do it right -- a more academical approach.

On the other hand, Linux was and is develop'd with a "get the word out" attitude. That is not to say it wasn't and isn't done right, though, of course.

Re:I have a question

[evilviper]

Why then has Linux grown so much popular in the corporate world?

Well, Linux is popular because it is a media darling. I don't have any definate answer as to why that is, but companies hear about Linux so they use it, or invest in it for some media attention of their own.

You might as well ask why Windows is more popular than Mac OS. People get Windows because everyone else has Windows, and because there are more programs for Windows... There are more programs for Windows because everyone uses Windows... It's quite a vicious cycle.

Re:I have a question

[trb]

To make a setlement, professors from University of California developed what they called 4BSD - an operating system without the files that were proprerty of USL

You're confusing 4BSD with 4.4BSD. 4BSD came out in 1980 and was the original paging UNIX for VAX. 4.4 was the post-lawsuit one, and came out in 1994.

Re:I have a question

[Jungle guy]

You are absolutely right. I was refering to 4.4BSD (more precisely, 4.4BSD-Lite), not the old 4BSD.

Re:I have a question

[Quill_28]

OK this will be modded as flamebait but I have the karma.

Ask people why they use Linux over BSD.

1. Better hardware support(true)
2. More software available(true)
3. Everybody else is(media influence)
4. Easier(maybe)

Ask people why they use Windows over Linux

1. Better hardware support(true)
2. More software available(true)
3. Everybody else is(depends)
4. Easier(true)

I have nothing against Linux, Windows, or FreeBSD. I use Linux at work, FreeBSD and Windows at home.

It seems to me the FreeBSD makes a server than Linux, but Linux is a better workstation. Linux is getting much better(server stuff) every year. Alot like Windows is getting much better at server stuff each year.

But in the end I think the media and the early BSD license issue are the big reasons. Also, BSD seems a little more of a closed circle while Linux is a free for all. Maybe developers found it easier to involved with.

These thoughts are fairly random, take them for what they are worth.

Re:I have a question

[Nickus]

Because of the UNIX lawsuit in the beginning of the 1990s. I remember reading once that Linus said that if the *BSD would have been stable and available back when he started he wouldn't have bothered. So you can blame the whole thing on Novell or whoever owned UNIX(tm) back then.

Then again, I could be mistaken.

Re:I have a question

[__past__]

That study is off-topic, it doesn't even mention BSD. Here there are also objective comparisons between Linux and BSD that you should consider before setting up your next server.

To celebrate...

[DoctorPhish]

...Everybody port it to a new platform!

I think I'll port it to my turntable.

Re:To celebrate...

[Znonymous Coward]

I'm already running it in my mouse and emprt Dr. Pepper bottles.

Hrm

[B3ryllium]

My toaster STILL can't run NetBSD. They need to hurry up the development of it.

Also, my coffee machine, microwave, and toaster oven all could use a little NetBSD loving.

Re:Hrm

[vesamies]

Generally running NetBSD requieres a prosessor
which has MMU. This is needed for its
multiprocessing and security cababilities.
I don't think your toaster has a enough
advanced CPU to run NetBSD. But you can try
put the boot floppies in your toaster and
see what happens. It could well be one
of the supported platforms.

Re:Hrm

[B3ryllium]

thx 4 teh help ;-)

I actually run FreeBSD on my Server ... haven't ever tried NetBSD. I only hear good things about it, though.

Re:Hrm

[overbom]

This goes without saying, but you should check the systems ported page for your appliances' porting status.

http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/

We all know how much of a bear it can be to image a boot disk on a piece of bread. They're working on it, give them a break.

Are they girls at these parties?

[schoolsucks]

What kind of parties are these? I can imagnin hoards and hoards of nerds wearing t-shirt and denim shorts drinking Mountain Dew, all talking about computers.

Re:Are they girls at these parties?

[JDWTopGuy]

It's a geek version of the Oscars, except the jokes aren't funny (beowulf clusters, anyone?) and most people at the party will be fully dressed.

Re:Are they girls at these parties?

[RLiegh]

She might show up

If I had mod points, they'd be yours.

Re:Are they girls at these parties?

[LizardKing]

The German NetBSD birthday party will end up at the OperationMindfuck event on the 22nd of March. Check out http://www.operationmindfuck.net/. Plenty of girls, alcohol and loud industrial music.

Chris

Re:Are they girls at these parties?

[thorpej]

Well... the party in San Francisco is being held at the 21st Amendment (a nice restaurant and brewery down by Pac Bell Park). We're going to have some great food, some great beer, and eat a NetBSD birthday cake.

Basically, a group of friends who have known and worked with each other for a decade now are going to get together and have a great time.

It's a been a quite a past 10 years ... and I personally am looking forward to hacking NetBSD for the next 10!

That's a good question...

[Penguin Follower]

... and one that I don't have an answer for.

I have linux here at home and at work. Yet, as of right now I'm waiting on my first set of OpenBSD 3.2 CD's that I ordered from their site. *The real kicker: I'm to set up OpenBSD servers at work!*

Actually, I'm quite happy: I get to learn something new. :)

Re:That's a good question...

[grub]

I'm waiting on my first set of OpenBSD 3.2 CD's

Owww! Lucky you! Your first virgin install of OpenBSD may take a try or two, but the sheer joy and sanity of the system once you're done will be worth every moment.

Enjoy it, I know I do.

Re:Which is older

[shamilton]

NetBSD is slightly older. FreeBSD 1.0 was released in November of 1993.

I'm told Linux was comparable back then, too.

Re:GET SOME PRIORITIES!

[grub]

You should read Cowboy George's St. Patrick's Day Speech.

Re:Another birthday?

[RLiegh]

Look up trivia and then flame each other on /.?
In otherwords: SOP?

One answer?

[/Idiot\]

people say that Linus was REALY active those days

That's because there was no slashdot to keep them from their coding :-)

Parent was moded "Funny"?

[/Idiot\]

Dying? We are all dying my son :-)

NetBSD is an excelent OS. Some may prefer Linux, some may perfer NetBSD. Me, I use both!

NetBSD might not be *your* particular brand of vodka on i386/x86 arch, but compare the progress of NetBSD on non-i386 archs to Linux on the same arch and, well, NetBSD is the ONLY real choice to make my uVAX more than just a space-heater!

Dying, definately not. NetBSD is not an example of how great an open source OS can become.

While I am here, a big thanks to all the NetBSD developers, where ever you are!

Still the most portable

[Dr. Manhattan]

"Of course it runs NetBSD."

Really true. I just started playing with it a few weeks ago, sticking it on an old Mac SE/30. It's now a very capable webserver, more than able to saturate my pathetic DSL upload bandwidth. (Watch, now the poor thing melts from a Slashdotting.)

Linux support for Mac68K seems to have stagnated; the 2.4 kernel still doesn't compile for 68K Macs. Sure, they're not common anymore, but Linux is supposed to scale.

It may not have every whiz-bang feature that Linux has, but portability is important, too. Almost any random hardware with an MMU runs NetBSD, and runs it well. I love Linux, and I run it on my PCs and at work, but NetBSD made way more sense for this project. It was very easy to set up, too. Configuration is... different from Linux, but I can't say it's worse. I'm not finding it too hard to learn.

Congrats to them, and best wishes for the future. They do good work.

Re:Still the most portable

[Anonymous Coward]

I have it running on a Sparc 2 pizza box as my firewall. IMHO ipf is alot easier to install, configure, and maintain than ipchains. (Yes, I know ipf runs on Linux as well)

I have it running on a DEC 3000/ with sendmail for my mail server. It puts it's pants on every day and delivers the mail without a hiccup. I did a single OS install and I've never had to do an upgrade or patch.

I used to have it running on a pmax (one of those old Ultrix boxen) for a workstation and it had quite acceptable performance but there just wasn't enuff software available. I agree that Linux makes a more pleasant working environment for a desktop.

My #1 reason for running NetBSD on these servers is that I know absolutely everything that is going on on them. When I do a 'ps ax' on my firewall I get about 15 processes and I know exactly what they're doing and why they're there. I also know that most of the executables on the disk are there for a good reason and are going to be useful. On Linux I'm constantly wasting tens of dollars worth of disk space on things that I'll never use :-)

-- Les

Re:Still the most portable

[CoolVibe]

Not only mac 68k's, but also sparcs (not the ultra's) are poorly supported by Linux at the moment. I'm glad I can still run NetBSD on my rickety old sparcstations.

Has anyone reliably got a 2.4 kernel to work on a sun4m lately?

Re:Still the most portable

[ChristTrekker]

I've been doing the same, partly out of SE/30 nostalgia, and partly to play with a BSD to gain broader experience. I've found the community to be very helpful so far.

What are the stats on your machine? What are you doing with it?

Re:Still the most portable

[Dr. Manhattan]

It's a Mac SE/30 (of course), but the ROM in those came on a SIMM. And the very first few IIsi's had a ROM SIMM, too. I took the ROM out of a IIsi, put it in the SE/30, and now it's 32bit clean without MODE32 or any of that. (If someone wants to buy a IIsi ROM, or an entire IIsi, let me know...)

I bumped it up to 32MB RAM (I'm still amazed that a consumer machine in 1989 could handle up to 128MB!) and stuck in a 4GB drive. It's got a 2X external CD-ROM (that can read CD-R media, but not CD-RW, oh well),an Ethernet card (10Base2/AUI, I need a converter to get 10BaseT) and a 14.4 modem.

I've got NetBSD going on it, and the web server stuff is working well. (BTW, ssh v2 takes, like, five minutes to get going; ssh v1 'only' takes ~30 seconds.) For the sheer heck of it, I'm going to get pppd going on the modem so I'm my own dialup ISP. (Someday it'll come in handy, I'm sure.)

Take a look, the URL's right after my name up there.

Re:Still the most portable

[ChristTrekker]

Sweeeeet! I'll email you about that IIsi ROM SIMM. I'm using MODE32 on my SE/30 now, but I can see it might be a benefit to move that from software to hardware.

I bought a 1.2 GB drive off a swap list, and got NetBSD installed on that while I had 8 MB. Later I also found an eBay auction for RAM, so I'm at 68 MB now. I wonder if I should have bit the bullet and gone all the way to 128. It is pretty amazing, because as recently as 1997 Apple was shipping machines with a 128 MB ceiling. I also bought a 10bT card on the swap list, so I'm ready to go whenever I get the time to set up the network.

You should really say something about the machine itself on your site. A picture would be nice. :)

Parties?

[xchino]

Parties are being held in various cities around the world...

I don't think 10 guys doing a shot together over IRC counts as "parties in various cities",

Re:Parties?

[Phishpin]

"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It's just that yours is stupid" is just his sig.

Re:wtf

[Quill_28]

having a million Linux distributions is a waste of time also according to your logic.

Re:GET SOME PRIORITIES!

[sladelink]

Priorities? Good idea. Let's get NetBSD running on Iraq!

OT: Can anyone tell me the origin of BSD is dying?

[cappadocius]

I'm a newbie around here. As long as I've been a reader, "BSD is dying" has been an old joke. So can anyone tell me: what is the origin of the BSD is Dying troll.

Was it one piece repeatedly posted to stories (like the Father O'Day or whatever that thing is that keeps getting posted on Apple stories) or was it someone's sig, or just lots of posts?

If it was just one repeated post, or a sig, does anyone have a copy of the thing they can post?

Thanks.

Best kept secret

[felix9x]

NetBSD is realy great many admins just love it. The system is rock solid and its not unusual that it woudl be running for years without a reboot. Many admins use it for things like mail, ftp, web servers internaly in companies and no press no hype is generated but the OS keeps on working doing its job.

der Pepper?

[scubacuda]

Look at your Dr Pepper bottle...there is no period in Dr :)

Re:Elegy for *BSD

[dick johnson]

Died?

Think again.

Try Mac OS X.

It's the biggest selling Unix operating system on the market today (better than four million copies per year)

It's also a BSD unix.

Re:wtf

[TheRaven64]

You seem to be suffering from the Linux myth of 'One OS to rule them all'. There is a lot of code flow between the *BSDs, but they are all different because they all aim at different things.

OpenBSD is highly secure, nothing beats it on routers / firewalls.
NetBSD is ultra-portable, and runs on almost anything.
FreeBSD is what Linux want to be when it grows up. A powerful, yet easy to use, well documented UNIX, which works great on servers (AFAIK it still has the best TCP/IP stack of all the free *NIXes) and workstations (I dual boot FreeBSD and Windows on this machine).

Forks are only bad when they are aiming for the same goal and splitting developer time. When they are aiming for different goals and sharing code when their goals coincide, they are a Good Thing(tm).