“Wasabi Systems Inc. is a new commercial undertaking that
sprung from the NetBSD core group of developers. Following the
now-traditional Open Source business model, the company hopes to
turn a profit by offering support and customization options for
clients. But because Wasabi and the NetBSD Foundation are
sharing a booth at Linux World, does that mean the commercial
entity is getting a little too cozy with the .org group for the
Open Source community’s comfort?”
“NetBSD, one of just four flavors of the BSD operating system,
runs on 32 platforms, including Atari, Amiga, and Mac68k. As the
operating system has evolved, installing it gets easier and easier,
according to Luke Mewburn, a senior developer for Wasabi Systems.
And the newest version of NetBSD, 1.5, is highly
compatible with Linux and will run most applications created
for Linux.”
“The release also features hot-pluggable keyboards and mice,
detachable PCMCIA support, USB, and wireless networking. That,
coupled with code portability and what some say are more attractive
licensing terms (BSD’s Berkeley vs. the GNU General Public
License), make NetBSD more and more attractive to businesses — at
least that’s what Wasabi Systems is hoping. Some of the core group
from NetBSD decided to start Wasabi Systems back in mid-2000.”