The *BSD Operating Systems

1. The *BSD Operating Systems Dave Tyson Computing Services, The University of Liverpool

2. Outline • Background history • Birth of 386BSD O/S • The FreeBSD project • The NetBSD project • The OpenBSD project • Comparison with Linux/Solaris • Application software • Choosing what to run

3. Background History • 1969 Unix created at Bell Labs • 1977 Berkeley Development starts • 1986 4.3BSD released • 1990 Net/2 Release distributed • asserted to be freely distributable • 1992 AT&T lawsuit • 1994 4.4BSD-lite released • clean base - all suspect code deleted

4. 386BSD • work done by Bill Jolitz • published in Dr Dobbs Journal • Based on Net/2 distribution • Machine dependant code written for i386 • Development hindered by poor i386 info • Availability • Release 0.0 Feb 1992 • Release 0.1 July 1992

5. 386BSD • Minimum system requirements • 386 processor • 2Mb RAM • 40Mb Hard disk • supported various ethernet cards • distribution • base system about 30 floppy disks • source code 13 floppy disks

6. 386BSD • lots of interest in unix community • lots of bugs found! • Bill Jolitz unresponsive • interested parties produce patches • ad-hoc patch kit released • Bill promises a book and fixed release • After 6 months inaction no-one believes him • separate projects FreeBSD NetBSD BSDi

7. The FreeBSD Project

8. The FreeBSD Project • Take 386BSD base and improve it • Concentrate on PC systems only • (Later decide to support Alpha also) • Aim to support all common peripherals • Use Walnut Creek for CDROM distribution • Funding from sales of CD’s etc • Good project organisation

9. The FreeBSD Project • Core team - decide project direction • Developers - write the code • Initial release FreeBSD 1.0 Dec 1993 • Available on CD / via the net • Project forced to move to BSD-lite base • Much boot code had to be rewritten • FreeBSD 2.0 shipped Nov 1994

10. The FreeBSD Project • unified source code tree • branches for development/stable base • Latest stable version FreeBSD 4.2 • IPV6 • support for gigabit NIC’s • ATM • SCSI raid controllers • development version FreeBSD 5.0

11. The FreeBSD Project Strengths • Easy installation • Good documentation • FreeBSD Handbook • Support for multiple processors • Widely use for “large” servers • Native threads => wine etc • Most popular *BSD system • commercial support from BSDi

12. The NetBSD Project “Of course it runs NetBSD”

13. The NetBSD Project • Formed at the same time as FreeBSD • Aim to support different platforms • follow original Berkeley Philosophy • split machine dependant/independent code • Emphasis on clean, well structured design • Code portability for new platforms • Good project organisation

14. The NetBSD Project • Core Team - decide project direction • Portmasters - head up platform teams • Developers - write the code • initial release NetBSD 0.8 Apr 1993 • I386 only • BSD-lite release NetBSD 1.0 Oct 94 • I386 Amiga HP300 M68K SPARC

15. The NetBSD Project • Unified Source Tree • Production/Development branches • Latest Version 1.5 • IPV6 • VLAN support • Strong Encryption • new VM system • 15 supported architectures

16. The NetBSD Project Strengths • Available for a wide range of systems • Easy to port to new platforms • Used in several commercial products • Good USB device support • Excellent support for non-native binaries • Reliable and secure • Commercial support from Wasabi Systems

17. The OpenBSD Project

18. The OpenBSD project • A spinoff from NetBSD in 1995 • Idealogical split in the ‘core’ team • Focus on improving security • CDROM distribution funds development • Canadian Base sidestepped export regulations • Similar platform support to NetBSD

19. The OpenBSD Project • General goal is to be ‘most secure O/S’ • Current record • 3 yrs without a remote exploit (default install) • 2 yrs without a local exploit (default install) • Security achieved by: • extensive source code audit • provision of cryptographic interfaces • Support for hardware cryptography

20. The OpenBSD Project • Unified Source Tree • Latest version 2.8 • IPV6 • Over 500 prebuilt packages • OpenSSH /SFTP server • better hardware crypto support • console mouse support on i386

21. The OpenBSD Project Strengths • Security • Available for a wide range of platforms • but not as many as NetBSD • Excellent support for non-native binaries • Reliability • Commercial support available

22. Comparision with Linux • Licensing issues vs Linux • BSD license for kernel code • BSD license for most utilities • Can be used as commercial base • Long Term stability • NFS code very reliable • good memory management • Each BSD has a single distribution • Each BSD has a single bug/security repository

23. Comparision with Linux • Less hype • Trackable code base • Negative points • not as well known • fewer commercial applications • BSD religion sometimes unhelpful • no BSD documentation project ! • Installation may frighten unix newbies

24. Comparison with Solaris 2.8 • Better performance on i386 • more public software applications • more supported hardware on i386 • ISA legacy kit • Sun4C support • However Solaris has: • NIS+ • more commercial software

25. Application software • Easy installation of software using package system • Precompiled Binaries • Auto build from source code • Wide range of Public Domain software • Some commercial products for FreeBSD • Can run Linux and other binaries

26. Choosing what to run • Choice of platform dictates O/S • On PC’s FreeBSD is very good • SMP support etc • NetBSD/OpenBSD also work fine • Other Architectures • Choice is NetBSD or FreeBSD

27. The Future • All the projects have strong teams • lots of cross fertilisation of ideas • New Mac O/S ‘Darwin’ based on *BSD code