Overview of FreeBSD
Date and Time
Wednesday, October 20, 1999 from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Location
MIT Building 3-133
Presenters
Robert A. Getschmann - rob getschmann org
Summary
An open-source UNIX system based on the original AT&T code
Abstract
Robert A. Getschmann talks about the various BSD operating systems, with an emphasis on FreeBSD, and demonstrates FreeBSD running on his Toshiba 335CDT notebook computer. His talk will include a brief history of BSD, BSD vs GPL licenses, and a detailed discussion of the status, goals, and philosophies of each of the free BSDs: FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD. The early nineties saw the maturity of UNIX as an operating system in the commercial world. At this time the Computer Research Group at Berkeley ceased further research on the BSD UNIX project. An attempt to freely release the source code for the Berkeley based UNIX sparked a lawsuit brought on by UNIX Systems Laboratories (a subsidiary of AT&T) for alleged distribution of AT&T source code and violation of license agreements with the University of California at Berkeley. The case was settled out of court, one of the consequences being that freely available variants of BSD would be based upon the 4.4BSD Lite code base. The NetBSD and FreeBSD operating systems evolved from the 4.4BSD base.
Meeting Notes
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