ResearchThe Changing BSD Landscape
"BSD is dying." is such a frequently uttered phrase, it has earned status as a classic troll on technology enthusiast sites like Slashdot. The lesser cousin of Linux, BSD started as an outright version of Unix itself, as opposed to Linux which is simply Unix-like. BSD is still kicking in various forms today, in some ways behind and in other ways far ahead of other free and open source operating systems.
BSD has enjoyed a following composed around a mystique of even greater geekdom than that of Linux; BSD is the circle within the circle of the techie community. If you ever need a badge of identification as a true programmer, it's handy to have a picture of you with several BSD "booth babes" - slinky models wearing cute red devil-girl costumes who pose for pictures at computer conventions. So that's one way the BSD community is ahead! Ok, that's trivial. A greater status indicator is that BSD was the first system in history to support sockets and Internet protocol. Today's Internet may run mostly on Linux, but BSD pioneered it. For nearly a decade, as it was at first the AT&T Unix of choice, Net BSD was the first name in network connection speed and security.
The three main branches of BSD are Net BSD, Free BSD, and Open BSD. Of those three, Free BSD has the biggest following, with Open BSD running a close second and Net BSD bringing up the rear. One of the big ways that the BSD system is catching up is the use of live CD distros. For years, BSD was something that you absolutely had to download in source code form and compile yourself; this was seen as keeping the project "pure". But it was a barrier to entry; people are curious about a new system and want to try it out. The Linux community has wisely given people that opportunity, with pre-compiled binary distributions on CDs, ready to plug and play. BSD has just arrived at that point in the last two years.
Recently, the main developer of Net BSD, Charles M. Hannum, who is the closest thing the Net BSD community has to a leader, posted an open letter to the community essentially declaring the Net BSD project to be over. Even though the posting is titled "The Future of Net BSD", his text is a glum pronouncement that there isn't one. However, BSD like other open source systems has no "owner", so there's nothing to stop anyone picking up the project where it left off. It still has users, but one need only, as I have, run Net BSD installed and the Open BSD live CD "Olive BSD" and compare: Net BSD is clunky and looks five years behind. Olive BSD is right up to speed and has fewer problems; tiny niche interest though it is, there's not much to stop it from being another Ubuntu if it caught on.
If Net BSD is indeed doomed, what killed it? If anything, apparently age plus lack of interest. Thirty years ago in the 1970's, BSD was alive and humming, and Linux wasn't even a twinkle in anybody's eye yet. Today Linux has risen to overshadow BSD despite being only half it's age, with a much more innovation-friendly environment and strong leadership to keep the project focused. BSD, which used to be the *only* free operating system (imagine that!), is now seen as mostly a niche. The other two BSD branches are still going strong however, and Free BSD is even tracked on Linux reporting sites by popular demand. Many of the utilities from one system will run on the other, and a distribution of the two mixed together even exists today as "Volta Linux".
Ironically, 90% of the user-level software found on a BSD distro is the same GNU utilities you encounter on a Linux distro. KDE, Gnome, Firefox, and the gcc compiler all running under the hood. Between Linux and BSD, which system could have been more popular could as well have been determined by a coin toss as anything else. No matter the future of BSD as a whole, the open source community will never forget where it's roots are.