I was thinking today about our creative work 386BSD Release 0.1 and the open source revolution William and I had the privilege to ignite on Bastille Day 1992, 33 years ago.
In March 1992, we released 386BSD 0.0, a fully open source operating system as documented over the prior two years in Dr. Dobbs Journal in our Porting Unix to the 386 series. 386BSD Release 0.0 was by design a very minimal release with novel code done by us filling the gaps. It had to be minimal, since there were concerns about proprietary code from old Unix releases of bygone years. By documenting and releasing this early OS as open source, we achieved a baseline release on which people could freely build.
And build they did! We received thousands of contributions, fixes and updates over the next three months. It was an immense challenge to inspect, vet, test, incorporate, and credit those responsible. But we did, with the support of the open source community, Berkeley Unix specialists, and Dr. Dobbs Journal editors. It was a remarkable time.
386BSD was the progenitor, platform, and inspiration of many open source projects. By porting it to the X86 processor, a proprietary academic testbed system only accessible to institutions and government became, in a moment, the means for any talented programmer to implement their ideas and expand their horizons.
A couple kids from Berkeley and a dream. That’s where it started.
As I sit and look at the current software ecosystem, I do wonder if what William and I achieved, with the further assistance of so many other wonderful people, would be possible today. I have my concerns and doubts.
But then I only need look at the tremendous value open source presents to the next generation of innovation to hope.
Keep the dream alive in your own life. It’s worth it.