F/OSS Comics #13: BSD Unix, Part 3 – The Beginning of BSD Unix

In 1977, Bill Joy created the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) by bundling a Pascal compiler with the ex text editor and distributing it on tape to other universities for minimal cost. Early BSD was not a standalone operating system but rather a collection of software additions for existing Unix systems, with subsequent releases like 2BSD adding tools like vi and the C shell. Berkeley's culture of sharing research software, combined with AT&T's restrictions on selling Unix, enabled BSD to spread widely among academic and research institutions.