386BSD UNIX

[daniel lance herrick]

In article <180 at phi.UUCP>, marka at phi.UUCP (Mark Allen) writes:
> Does anyone know how to get a copy of the 386BSD UNIX discussed in the January
> issue of Dr. Dobb's?

There was an email address for one of the authors / implementers with
the article.  The following answer to my question came after Christmas:


Subject: Re: 386BSD availability

	From abvax!iccgcc.DNET!herrickd at uunet.UU.NET Fri Dec 21 12:18:39 1990
	Date: 21 Dec 90 14:13:00 EDT
	From: "CONTR  HERRICK, DAN" <abvax!iccgcc.DNET!herrickd at uunet.UU.NET>
	Subject: 386BSD availability
	To: "william%berkeley.edu" <william%berkeley.edu%uunet.uu.net at abvax.icd.ab.com>

	Dear William,

	In your article about the port, you close by saying

	"Those of you who can meet U of Cal requirements should obtain
	a copy of 386BSD from the U of Cal...."

	But you give no hint of where to begin the process.

	Help.

	dan herrick
	herrickd at iccgcc.decnet.ab.com


386BSD is distributed by the University of California at Berkeley CSRG.
You should contact them at 415-642-7780 when 386BSD is available.
In the meantime, the February issue will feature several complete and
freely redistributable programs used in the actual 386BSD port.

In addition, those are universities and research institutions and some
commercial entities may be covered under current source license agreements.
In this case, the next release of the Reno tape will have 
most of the 386 work merged in, if not all of it.

BTW, here is the University's official statement on the subject:
" The 386BSD support will be available in February as part of a revision
of the 1989 Networking Release distribution.
One very important fact to remember is, that although the 386BSD itself
support is not AT&T proprietary, much of the rest of the operating system
and utilities ARE AT&T proprietary.
Therefore, the February distribution will NOT be a complete system and
cannot be booted or run on a 386 machine.
The distribution will not require an AT&T license, but will require a
Berkeley license and distribution fee.
Previous fees were approximately $500, but the actual fee has not yet
been determined.

The 4.4BSD release is scheduled for the middle of 1991, and additional,
non-proprietary support for the 386 will be made available at that time."

Thank you for your kind interest,
Bill and Lynne Jolitz.


end of quotation.

My impression from this is:

1:  this is not cheapnix.

2:  it is not past tense as the intro to the issue editorial suggested

3:  they want people using it, but Berkeley wants them to be the right
    kind of people

The articles will make good reading, regardless of availability.

dan herrick
herrickd at iccgcc.decnet.ab.com