BSD Suppliers Unite to Deliver the World's Most Popular Internet Operating Systems
The New BSDI To Deliver Renowned BSD Operating System Technologies And
Back The Rapidly Growing FreeBSD Open Source Community
Colorado Springs, Colo., March 9, 2000 Berkeley
Software Design, Inc. (BSDI) announced today that it has merged with
Walnut Creek CDROM, the distributor of the popular FreeBSD operating
system. As a merged company, the new BSDI unites the leading developers
and suppliers of the Berkeley Software Distribution operating system. BSDI
will develop and deliver advanced BSD^n Internet operating systems and
platforms, while providing the open source FreeBSD Project with technology,
backing and expanded support.
BSD operating systems run some of the Internet's most highly trafficked
sites and largest service providers, including Yahoo!, Microsoft's Hotmail
and UUNET, an MCI WorldCom company. BSD and Linux are today's
fastest-growing operating systems, according to Survey.com, the leading
eResearch company.
BSD operating system, networking and Internet technologies have achieved
widespread acceptance in the Internet infrastructure. Over 100,000
commercial Internet customers run BSD operating systems on more than
2,000,000 BSD-powered servers. It is estimated that nine out of 10
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Network Service Providers (NSPs) as
well as 15 percent of all Internet sites run BSD systems. BSD operating
systems are also embedded in innovative Internet appliances from Intel,
IBM, Lucent, F5 Labs, Hitachi and many others.
BSDI also announced that Yahoo! Inc. will take an equity interest in the
new company. BSDI will leverage the equity interest to execute on its
plan to build a bridge between open source innovation and commercial
requirements. The equity position will be used to grow BSDI's presence as
a leading provider of the most advanced Internet operating systems for the
Internet infrastructure.
BSDI intends to form a united front for the BSD operating systems. The
company will deliver, support and enhance both BSD/OS and FreeBSD. BSDI
and the FreeBSD Project are jointly evaluating the technology and market
requirements for merging parts of the code bases for the two operating
systems.
The New BSDI's Leadership
"BSD technologies have evolved from a long history of advanced computing
at the core of the Internet," said Dr. Marshall Kirk McKusick, BSDI's
chairman of the board. "The new BSDI will further enrich the popular BSD
computing platform, which is already widely deployed throughout the
world." McKusick was a founding member of the University of California at
Berkeley's Computer Systems Research Group (CSRG) and is widely
acknowledged as a key early contributor to the open source movement.
To drive the new BSDI's vision, roadmap and continued profitable growth,
Gary J. Johnson has been appointed chief executive officer. Johnson is
an experienced technology executive who has served in a variety of senior
management, sales, marketing and operations capacities with leading
Silicon Valley companies including Tandem Computers (Compaq), Convergent
Technologies (Unisys) and SCO. Johnson most recently served as president
of ClickService Software, a leading provider of e-commerce, customer
relationship management (CRM) software.
"Innovation in the operating systems arena relies heavily on work in the
open source community," said Johnson. "To date, Linux suppliers, such as
Red Hat Software and VA Linux, have captured impressive attention for the
open source approach to development. At the core of the Internet, however,
BSD technologies are pervasive. The new BSDI will be working closely with
the open source community to ensure that advanced BSD Internet operating
systems and platforms continue to meet the ever-increasing demands for
Internet servers, applications, appliances and other elements vital to the
Internet infrastructure."
In addition to his current responsibilities, Mike Karels, BSDI's vice
president of engineering and the former chief system architect and
principal programmer for the University of California at Berkeley's CSRG,
plans to join the architectural team for the FreeBSD Project. Karels, who
replaced Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy at the CSRG, is recognized
as one of the world's foremost developers of Unix internals and TCP/IP
networking software.
"BSD technologies have contributed to Yahoo!'s continued success by
offering the reliability and level of service necessary to ensure the
availability and scalability we need to keep Yahoo! up and running around
the clock regardless of increasing user demand," said David Filo,
co-founder and Chief Yahoo, Yahoo! Inc.
BSDI Continues To Deliver BSD/OS And FreeBSD; Expands And Accelerates
FreeBSD Open Source Initiatives
The new BSDI will sell and support FreeBSD, BSD/OS, BSDI Internet Super
Server and value-added BSD product lines through its worldwide sales
channels to Internet infrastructure providers, appliance developers and
business users. BSDI will offer commercially supported BSD operating
systems and related applications, Internet appliance platforms, technical
support and services, open source software development, and consulting
services. The company will deliver its BSD Internet and networking
technologies on leading microprocessor platforms, including Intel, SPARC,
Alpha, PowerPC and StrongARM.
BSDI will continue to develop, enhance and distribute BSD/OS and FreeBSD
according to the terms of the business-friendly, unencumbered Berkeley
software license, which encourages development for open source software
projects, embedded systems, specialized applications, information
appliances and other operating system-enabled products.
BSDI will expand and accelerate Walnut Creek CDROM's FreeBSD open source
initiatives by sharing BSD/OS technical innovations with the FreeBSD
Project and by providing this open source project with operational and
technical support, marketing and funding. BSDI will continue to
distribute packaged versions of FreeBSD and also plans to develop
value-added products based on FreeBSD as well as to provide technical
support, consulting services, educational services and training for
FreeBSD customers. These steps are expected to promote and invigorate the
BSD open source computing movement. The FreeBSD Project develops the
popular FreeBSD operating system and aggregates and integrates contributed
software from more than 5,000 developers worldwide.
Internet and Open Source Leaders Support The New BSDI
"We are delighted that BSDI is backing the FreeBSD open source community,"
said Jordan Hubbard, chief evangelist and co-founder of the FreeBSD
Project. "The new BSDI has considerable expertise in commercializing,
maintaining, distributing and supporting the world's most advanced
Internet operating systems. We are excited and greatly looking forward to
partnering with BSDI's chief developers, especially Mike Karels and other
original members of UC Berkeley's CSRG, to accelerate operating system,
networking and Internet innovation."
"Open source operating systems like BSD offer better technology and more
choices to the customer," said Eric Raymond, president of the Open Source
Initiative. "I expect BSDI to prove yet again that the open source and
business communities can really to do great things together, driving the
industry forward as dramatically as the Internet."
"Our research shows that BSD and Linux will increase their share of
enterprise servers by between 100 percent and 500 percent over the next
two years in the fundamental applications that run U.S. business," said
Dave Trowbridge, senior analyst at Survey.com. "This new company will help
ensure that BSD gets its place in the sun, which its rich heritage and
solid technical foundations deserve."
About the Berkeley Software Distribution Operating System
Berkeley Software Distribution operating system technologies were
originally developed from 1979 to 1992 by the Computer Systems Research
Group (CSRG) at the University of California at Berkeley. Berkeley-derived
operating system and networking technologies are at the heart of most
modern Unix and Unix-like operating systems. Today, virtually every major
Internet infrastructure provider uses BSD operating systems. BSD
operating system technologies are used by leading mission-critical network
computing environments and are embedded in Internet appliance platforms
that require advanced Internet functionality, reliability and security.
About the FreeBSD Project
FreeBSD is a popular open source operating system developed by the FreeBSD
Project and its worldwide team, consisting of more than 5,000 developers
funneling their work to 185 "committer" developers. It is available free
of charge from ftp.FreeBSD.org and also distributed as a shrink-wrap
software product through CompUSA, Fry's, Borders, Ingram, FreeBSDmall.com
and others. FreeBSD includes thousands of ported applications, including
the most popular Web, Internet and E-mail applications. FreeBSD is
distributed under the Berkeley Software Distribution license, which means
that it can be copied and modified freely. For more information about the
FreeBSD Project, visit www.FreeBSD.org.
About Walnut Creek CDROM
Walnut Creek CDROM was founded in 1991 and began publishing Linux software
in 1992, and BSD software in 1993. The company has a long history of
working closely with the free software community and providing funding,
staffing and other resources for open source projects. Walnut Creek CDROM
publishes numerous software titles, including FreeBSD and Slackware, the
most BSD-like version of Linux.
About Berkeley Software Design, Inc. (BSDI)
Leading BSD developers founded Berkeley Software Design, Inc. in 1991 to
commercialize BSD technologies and continue the Berkeley Unix tradition of
robust, reliable and extremely secure Internet operating systems for
network computing. By merging Berkeley Software Design, Inc. and Walnut
Creek CDROM, BSDI becomes the world's leading supplier of advanced
Internet operating systems for the Internet infrastructure. Contact BSDI
at [email protected] or at www.BSDI.com or call 1-719-593-9445 (toll free:
1-800-800-4273).
BSD is a registered trademark and BSD/OS and BSDI are trademarks of
Berkeley Software Design, Inc. Yahoo! and the Yahoo! logo are registered
trademarks of Yahoo! Inc. All trademarks mentioned in this document are
the property of their respective owners.
Contact:
Kevin Rose
BSDI
801-553-8166
[email protected]
Jordan Hubbard
FreeBSD Project
925-691-2863
[email protected]
Brigid Fuller
ZNA Communications
831-425-1581
[email protected] |