Re: [TUHS] 386BSD released

[risner@stdio.com]

I was running 386BSD 0.0 on a 386 40 mhz machine in April 1992 with 32 
mb of ram.
There was much instability in the OS with more than 8 gb of ram and I 
mailed 32 mb of extra to the Jolitz late summer to the fall.
I never heard about Linux until much later in 1993.

There used to be a post on usenet news annoucing the relase with the 
FTP, but the best I could google was this FAQ confirming release in 
1992.
https://groups.google.com/g/comp.os.386bsd.announce/c/PGltboD6rq4

I have repetively seen discussion suggesting Linux was available first, 
but having directly worked for a university at the time installing 
SunOS, AT&T SVR3, and other old OS’s, we welcomed the concept of 
switching from AT&T SVR3 on 386 machines to 386BSD. We’d probably have 
welcomed Linux if anyone in the department knew about it.

James Risner

On 15 Jul 2021, at 21:35, Dave Horsfall wrote:

> On Wed, 14 Jul 2021, Michael Kjörling wrote:
>
>>> In 1992, 386BSD is released by Lynne and William Jolitz, starting 
>>> the open source operating system movement (Linux didn't come along 
>>> under later).
>>
>> Are you sure? Wikipedia claims that it happened the other way around; 
>> that the Linux kernel initial release was 0.02 on 5 Oct 1991, while 
>> the 386BSD initial release was 0.0 on 12 March 1992.
>
> Could be; I got that news from one of those daily history sites (I 
> don't always trust Wikipedia).
>
>> It seems that work on 386BSD began earlier than work on Linux, but 
>> that the initial release of Linux was earlier than the initial 
>> release of 386BSD.
>
> That could be the source of the confusion.
>
> -- Dave