JargonFile/entries/BSD.txt

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BSD
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/BSD/ , n. [abbreviation for Berkeley Software Distribution] a family of
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Unix versions for the DEC VAX and PDP-11 developed by Bill Joy and others at
Berzerkeley starting around 1977, incorporating paged virtual memory, TCP/IP
networking enhancements, and many other features. The BSD versions (4.1,
4.2, and 4.3) and the commercial versions derived from them (SunOS, ULTRIX,
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and Mt. Xinu) held the technical lead in the Unix world until AT&T's
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successful standardization efforts after about 1986; descendants including
Free/Open/NetBSD, BSD/OS and MacOS X are still widely popular. Note that BSD
versions going back to 2.9 are often referred to by their version numbers
alone, without the BSD prefix. See also Unix.