Unix's charm is not only the power of its function, but also its excellent scalability, which provides advanced language C and various interpretation languages available for writing programs. With the tools provided by these systems, users can expand their original systems in their own needs and meet the needs of considerable computer researchers and users, so UNIX has more powerful capabilities to complete a variety of complexities. task. Once the Unix is used, it will experience the powerful function of UNIX, the user wants to use it all the time, not only other computer systems with limited capabilities. Enterprises also hopes to use the powerful processing capabilities of UNIX systems under the conditions they can withstand.
Since UNIX is a multi-user operating system, the general user of the system can only use the limited functionality provided, and only UNIX system administrators can make full use of all its capabilities. Therefore, it is also a desire to have a general unix user. But at those time, the computer that meets these desires is not everyone can afford. Expensive hardware, and UNIX gradually commercial trend, making your own UNIX is just a good wish to most people, while using UNIX is mainly a high scientific research and large and medium-sized company agencies.
By the 1980s, the emergence of a personal computer made the price of hardware can be accepted by individuals and small businesses, bringing a first-line dawn to a wishes with a UNIX system. However, the personal computer capacity using the 8086 chip is relatively poor, and the multi-user system that is really working is not enabled. After entering the 1990s, Intel's 80386 chip has greatly improved the computing capacity of the personal computer, and building a Unix that can truly use on a personal computer has also become possible.
In fact, Unix can run on the X86 platform is quite limited, and Mircosoft's xienx is a kind of (later developed into sco unix), but it is not expected to be free, free to use this commercial system. To port UNIX to the PC platform, you need UNIX source code, which is limited by AT & T's permissions, and UNIX code cannot be freely obtained (but 4.4 BSD Lite after the BSD and AT & T's legal disputes is no longer this Limited, it can be freely used under the BSD license). Many computer enthusiasts do not only work hard to achieve a freely used operating system. The purpose of the GNU program of the Free Software Foundation is to intend to create a free, similar to UNIX, in order to achieve this, GNU has developed a lot of very effective tools, including compilers and many system commands, but GNU plans Operating system kernel - Hurd, slow progress, and unable to build a complete operating system. Soon, computer enthusiasts have begun to consider building a UNIX kernel on a personal computer platform. Finland a computer graduate LINUS Torvalds started this, he built a Linux kernel on the X86 platform by learning Minix - a simple UNIX system for teaching purposes, and built a Linux kernel on the X86 platform. This kernel and GNU system tools combine it. Big success is a very popular GNU / Linux system.
Compared with these efforts, the Action of BSD researchers is relatively slow. One reason is that UNIX technology is quite mature, most members of the computer system research group have turned their attention to other research projects, additional AT & T and BSD Legal disputes have also hindered BSD development. But there are still two development work that transplant BSD to 80386 platforms, one is the BSD / 386 group, and their findings are commercial versions of BSD / OS, belonging to commercial companies BSDI. The other is a 386BSD program, which is later developed into freebsd.
The CSRG researchers have a superior condition, with enough UNIX systems, so the UNIX system on the personal computer platform is not too eager to require. 386BSD plans to be initiated by researchers such as Bill Jolitz, port 4.3BSD NET / 2 to the 80386 platform, and published using 386BSD names. However, the graft work is a complex task until the 386BSD version 0.5 version, there is still a considerable issue in the system that there is no solution. So in 1993, other researchers decided to join this plan, intend to correct the problems existing in the system together with Bill Jolitz. But at this time, the organizer Bill Jolitz suddenly decided to exit, making the 386BSD plan to stop the danger. Bill Jolitz as a planned initiator and the person in charge did not give specific advice after the plan, so the 386BSD program continued to develop, depending on other developers' decisions. Fortunately, the other three participants of the project Nate Williams, Rod Grimes and Jordan K. Hubbard decided to continue this very meaningful job, they used the name freebsd created by David Greenman as the new name of the system, since then An anyone can freely use the UNIX operating system - FreeBSD.
BSD UNIX uses a myth's elf as its mascot, this mascot mark is continued by FreeBSD, but NetBSD, but the elves of different BSD systems are slightly different, and the picture is the BSD wizard of FreeBSD. When a user browses the Internet, this cute wizard sign is seen on a lot of website related to FreeBSD.
In December 1993, it is very important for FreeBSD, and the FreeBSD version 1.0 is officially released this month. This freeBSD developer finds a publisher Walnet Creek to support freebsd disc and provide high-speed Internet network services, so that anyone can freely obtain the FreeBSD system by purchasing a CD or through the Internet Download, make FreeBSD It has achieved great success. Walnet Creek also used FreeBSD to built the largest, busiest anonymous file server on the Internet - FTP.cdrom.com.
Although FreeBSD can be freely obtained, BSD and AT & T legal disputes still threaten the legality of the FreeBSD system. When FreeBSD was very popular, the UNIX system laboratory (at this time, it has been sold to Novell) has conclusions with the legal disputes of the Berkeley Computer System Research Group. Although it is not necessary to compensate, the source code from AT & T must be removed in the BSD UNIX system. Berkeley Computer System Research Group removes these less than 10% source code, released 4.4BSD Lite, other BSD-based UNIX, including FreeBSD, is required to be converted to 4.4 BSD LITE.
This is a quite serious blow to FreeBSD, although 4.4 BSD Lite only deletes a small piece of code, but especially for Intel 80386 platform, the system lacks these code, the system cannot work properly. The FreeBSD team must solve two tasks, first to migrate FreeBSD from the original 4.3BSD to 4.4BSD, and then rewrite the deleted source code. These tasks are equivalent to re-transplanting 4.4bsd lite on 80386, so this costs a lot of effort. So until January 1995 they released FreeBSD 2.0, this time is a completely 4.4BSD Lite system. However, in about one year, FreeBSD cannot improve and introduce new versions on the original 1.0 basis, and this period is the stage of Internet further development, FreeBSD missed a well-developed good time. And its competitors, such as Linux, have achieved great success. Next, FreeBSD speeds up the development rhythm, 2.1, 2.2, 3.0 successively, this system is more and more applications on the Internet, especially for high performance, high-reliability network server systems, FreeBSD provides a pole Temptic choice.
Since the UNIX trademark belongs to the X / Open organization, FreeBSD is just a free operating system, and FreeBSD cannot be called Unix from the legal perspective (not using UNIX). However, based on the history of UNIX itself, FreeBSD can be the most original Unix, in some aspects, it is more traditional - or says the BSD UNIX college characteristics. Currently, UNIX trademarks actually have symbolic meaning, no one minds those systems are members of X / Open, which can be called Unix, those are not. UNIX has become a broad concept, as long as it is developed in accordance with UNIX, all applications are compatible with other UNIXs and other UNIXs, and are also recognized by all users as UNIX systems. So the Unix here includes various systems including BSD and System V, including compatible systems like Linux.
