Editing Berkeley Software Design

{{Short description|American software company}}
{{distinguish|Berkeley Software Distribution}}
{{Infobox company
| name             = Berkeley Software Design, Inc.
| logo             = Berkeley Software Design logo.svg
| genre            = [[Operating system]] software
| fate             = Acquired
| successor        = [[Wind River Systems]], [[iXsystems]]
| foundation       = 1991
| founder          = [[Rick Adams (Internet pioneer)|Rick Adams]], [[Keith Bostic (software engineer)|Keith Bostic]], [[Marshall Kirk McKusick]], [[Mike Karels]], [[Bill Jolitz]]
| defunct          = 2001/2002
| location_country = [[United States|U.S.]]
| industry         = [[Computer software]]
| products         = [[BSD/OS]]
| website          = {{Web archive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990420050738/http://www.bsdi.com/|title=bsdi.com}}
}}

'''Berkeley Software Design, Inc.''' ('''BSDI''' or, later, '''BSDi'''), was a [[software]] company founded in 1991 by members of the [[Computer Systems Research Group]] (CSRG), known for developing and selling [[BSD/OS]] (originally known as BSD/386), a commercial and partially [[Proprietary software|proprietary]] variant of the [[Berkeley Software Distribution|BSD Unix]] [[operating system]] for [[PC compatible|PCs]].

== Creation and BSD/386 ==
BSDI was founded by [[Rick Adams (Internet pioneer)|Rick Adams]] and members of the [[Computer Systems Research Group]] (CSRG) at the [[University of California, Berkeley]], including [[Keith Bostic (software engineer)|Keith Bostic]], [[Marshall Kirk McKusick|Kirk McKusick]], [[Michael J. Karels|Mike Karels]], [[William Jolitz|Bill Jolitz]] and Donn Seeley.<ref name="Bezroukov">{{cite web |author=Dr. Nikolai Bezroukov |year=2006 |title=AT&T Lawsuit Helps to Launch Linux Into Mainstream |url=http://www.softpanorama.org/People/Torvalds/Finland_period/att_lawsuit_as_a_launcher_for_linux.shtml |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181029191747/http://www.softpanorama.org/People/Torvalds/Finland_period/att_lawsuit_as_a_launcher_for_linux.shtml |archive-date=2018-10-29 |access-date=2018-10-29}}</ref> Jolitz, Seeley and Trent Hein were working for Rick Adams's [[UUNET]] at the time and became BSDI's first employees when the company began operations in 1991.<ref name="Bezroukov" /> In December 1991, [[USENIX]] Secretary and Former Head of Software at [[Convex Computer]], Rob Kolstad from [[University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign|University of Illinois]], was hired and would take over company operations just two years later.<ref name="Daemon">{{cite web |author=Dr. Peter Salus |date=November 2005 |title=The Daemon, the GNU and the Penguin - Ch. 16, by Dr. Peter Salus |url=http://www.groklaw.net/articlebasic.php?story=20050727225542530 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100612062932/http://www.groklaw.net/articlebasic.php?story=20050727225542530 |archive-date=2010-06-12 |access-date=2009-11-17}}</ref>

Jolitz, who worked on [[386BSD]], claimed that he was never officially hired or signed an employment contract with BSDI.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Unix Labs' Berkeley Software Design Suit Finds Berkeley University in Disarray |url=https://www.tech-insider.org/usl-v-bsdi-ucb/research/1992/0806.html |access-date=2024-12-05 |website=www.tech-insider.org}}</ref>

BSD/386 was released in January 1992. The name was chosen for its similarity to BSD ("Berkeley Software Distribution"), the source of its primary product, specifically [[4.3BSD]] Networking Release 2 (Net/2). The full system, including [[source code]] retailed at $995, which was more affordable than the equivalent source code license for the rival [[UNIX System V]] from [[AT&T]] (which cost more than $20,000 in the late 1980s.)<ref name="McKusick">{{cite web|author=McKusick, Marshall Kirk |date=January 1999 |title=Twenty Years of Berkeley Unix: From AT&T-Owned to Freely Redistributable |url=http://oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book/kirkmck.html |access-date=2009-11-17 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091001021430/http://oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book/kirkmck.html |archive-date=2009-10-01 }}</ref> 

== ''USL v. BSDI'' lawsuit ==

In late 1991, AT&T's [[Unix System Laboratories]] (USL) brought a [[USL v. BSDI|lawsuit against BSDI]], alleging that BSD/386 contained their proprietary trade secrets and source code. When USL were acquired by [[Novell]], a settlement was reached in January 1994. BSDI agreed to base future releases of the product, now called BSD/OS, on the CSRG's [[4.4BSD-Lite]] release which was declared free of any USL intellectual property.<ref name="McKusick" /> Rob Kolstad (of the University of Illinois and Convex Computer Corporation) was president of BSDI during this period and headed the company until the close of the decade.

== Usage in infrastructure ==
Under Rob Kolstad's direction, the company decided to pursue internet infrastructure as their primary customer audience. In the mid 1990s the top-10 websites in the world were almost all using BSD/386 as their BSD source codebase.<ref>personal communications (Robert Kolstad to Donald W . Gillies), November, 1995.</ref>

In the 1995 a survey of datacenter software platforms disclosed that BSDI was the #1 software used in data centers, by Internet servers.  BSDI subsequently released an "Internet Server" version of their software, in contrast to the desktop version, which focused on providing the maximum number of open-source server products in the base distribution.{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}

== Mergers and sale ==

In 1999, the BSDI employees sought an [[initial public offering]] and installed a new president to reach this goal as soon as possible given the recent success of the [[Red Hat]] IPO in the [[Linux]] market. Unfortunately, this strategy was not successful and soon after Rob Kolstad had exited the company, it was facing bankruptcy.

In 2000 the company merged with [[Walnut Creek CDROM]], a distributor of [[freeware]] and [[open source software]] on [[CD-ROM]] and shortly after that acquired Telenet System Solutions, Inc., an [[Internet]] infrastructure server supplier.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_/ai_62661886 |title=BSDi Acquires Telenet System Solutions, Inc.; The New BSDi to Deliver Internet Infrastructure-Grade Software, Systems and Solutions, ''Business Wire'' |publisher=Findarticles.com |date= |access-date=2014-06-20 |archive-date=2012-07-19 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120719203854/findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_/ai_62661886 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2001, under severe financial pressure from excessive leverage, BSDI (known as BSDi by that time) sold its software business unit (comprising BSD/OS and the former Walnut Creek [[FreeBSD]] and [[Slackware Linux]] open source offerings) to [[Wind River Systems]] and renamed the remainder [[iXsystems]] with a renewed focus on server hardware.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2001_April_4/ai_72739922/pg_1?tag=artBody;col1 |title=Wind River to Acquire BSDi Software Assets, Extending Development Platforms to Include Robust UNIX-based Operating Systems for Embedded Devices, ''Business Wire'' |publisher=Findarticles.com |date= |access-date=2014-06-20 |archive-date=2012-07-13 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120713103108/findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2001_April_4/ai_72739922/pg_1?tag=artBody;col1 |url-status=live }}</ref> Wind River dropped sponsorship of Slackware soon afterwards<ref>{{cite web
 | title = Slackware Commercial Distribution Left in Doubt as Developers Are Laid Off
 | publisher = Linux Today
 | url = http://www.linuxtoday.com/infrastructure/2001041701420NWSL
 | access-date = 2013-08-14
 | archive-date = 2014-03-18
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140318002416/http://www.linuxtoday.com/infrastructure/2001041701420NWSL
 | url-status = live
 }}</ref> and the FreeBSD unit was divested as a separate entity FreeBSD Mall, Inc. in 2002.<ref>{{cite web |author=Bob Bruce |url=http://www.freebsdmall.com/cgi-bin/fm/history.html |title=Company History |publisher=FreeBSD Mall |date= |access-date=2014-06-20 |archive-date=2013-12-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131214233856/https://www.freebsdmall.com/cgi-bin/fm/history.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Faced with competition from open-source BSD- and Linux-based operating systems, Wind River discontinued BSD/OS in December 2003. Many of its technologies live on in community-led BSD derivatives like FreeBSD.<ref name="bsdnews">{{cite web |url=http://www.bsdnewsletter.com/2003/09/News105.html |title=Wind River terminating BSD/OS |publisher=Bsdnewsletter.com |date= |access-date=2014-06-20 |archive-date=2014-08-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140828121947/http://www.bsdnewsletter.com/2003/09/News105.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2002, OffMyServer acquired the iXsystems hardware business and reverted to the iXsystems name in 2005.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2005/11/emw308540.htm |title=OffMyServer Renames Company iXsystems |publisher=Emediawire.com |access-date=2014-06-20 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090830175005/http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2005/11/emw308540.htm |archive-date=2009-08-30 }}</ref>


== See also ==
* [[BSD]]
* [[FreeBSD]]
* [[Wind River Systems]]
* [[iXsystems]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{Web archive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990420050738/http://www.bsdi.com/|title=Official website}}

{{Berkeley Software Distribution}}

[[Category:Software companies established in 1991]]
[[Category:Software companies disestablished in 2002]]
[[Category:American companies established in 1991]]
[[Category:American companies disestablished in 2002]]
[[Category:Defunct software companies of the United States]]
[[Category:Berkeley Software Distribution]]