[TUHS] BSD/386 (was: Old 386 Unix Versions, was: Re: PCC for the i386)

On Wednesday, 17 July 2019 at 9:37:44 +0200, emanuel stiebler wrote: I used it in the early 1990s (Interactive UNIX/386, based on System V, IIRC; there were other versions with different lineage). My recollections of it were less positive than yours, maybe only by comparison. Installation (hundreds of small components, each with their own license key) was a nightmare. In that connection, and by way of comparison, I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned BSDI's BSD/386 yet, which grew up intimately related to Jolitz' 386BSD. Jolitz worked with BSDI until (the beginning of?) December 1991, when he left due to disagreement with BSDI's licence model, apparently destroying all his work. I started using BSD/386 in mid-March 1992, a couple of days before Jolitz released 386BSD. In contrast to 386BSD, it was solid, installed easily, and cost $1000 (with source; I think there were cheaper binary-only options). It blew Interactive UNIX out of the water. This was a Beta, so I sent reports which I have published at http://www.lemis.com/grog/diary-mar1992.php#18 It's a pity that BSD/386 (later BSD/OS) went away, though later we incorporated some parts of the kernel into FreeBSD (with BSDI's permission and blessing, of course; see http://www.lemis.com/grog/diary-jun2000.php) In contrast to the other early offerings, it Just Worked. But the idea of paying for operating systems seemed to have passed its use-by date. Greg -- Sent from my desktop computer. Finger grog(a)lemis.com for PGP public key. See complete headers for address and phone numbers. This message is digitally signed. If your Microsoft mail program reports problems, please read http://lemis.com/broken-MUA