4BSD is dead???

[Larry McVoy]

Since I posted the original questions several people have come forward to
sustain them.  Here's what I know:

1) Apparently, 4.3 is as far as it goes.  I am reasonably certain that the 
   networking part of 4BSD will no longer be developed (at least not w/dod
   funding).  I am less certain that 4BSD will stop at 4.3; I will say that
   nobody from ucb had anything to say.  You would think that they would
   complain if I was flapping my gums w/o cause.

2) There is an operating system, called "MACH", which is based on Accent.  Both
   were developed at cmu.  Both are message based systems; Mach is supposedly
   *binary compatible* with 4.3.  Mach has a lot of neat features including
   (as of yet unimplemented[??]) someting called threads.  Threads are like
   subdivisions of a process; they run concurrently but are lighter weight 
   than prcesses themselves.  I think that means that context switches betweens
   threads is easy.  Also, it's a multi-processor system.  They have it running
   on a VAX 784 (as well as other flavors of vaxen).

3) It is not clear whether cmu will get the reins or not.  They have something
   that looks pretty nice and as Henry Spencer mentioned they get a lot of
   funding from DoD.  Does that mean they're the next Unix house?  Who knows?
   Maybe there won't be anything except sys5/version8.

Disclaimer (read this or my *ss is grass):  Everything I've said is somewhat
necessarily vague.  Obviously neither ucb nor cmu nor DoD consults me when
making these decisions.  What I've learned is largely second hand info; 
anyone who cared to ask could get the same.
-- 
Larry McVoy
-----------
Arpa:  mcvoy at rsch.wisc.edu                              
Uucp:  {seismo, topaz, harvard, ihnp4}!uwvax!geowhiz!larry      

"Just remember, wherever you go -- there you are."
 	-Buckaroo Banzai