NextBSD — the BSD of the 21st century
NextBSD
The BSD of the 21st century.
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Status
Kernel + Mach
Our own kernel, ABI-compatible with FreeBSD, with Mach built in — mach_msg, ports, port rights, bootstrap server. Kernel extensions provide drivers for GPU, Wi-Fi, and other hardware.
Done
launchd
Apple’s launchd-842.92.1 — the last open-source release — ported onto our Mach + libxpc stack. PID 1 capable.
Working
libxpc
Typed inter-process messaging on top of libdispatch + Mach. Forked from ravynOS; bootstrap server + connection lifecycle in flight.
Working
libdispatch
Grand Central Dispatch with a native Mach backend for our kernel — DISPATCH_SOURCE_TYPE_MACH_RECV on kqueue.
Working
CoreFoundation
Hybrid CF: GNUstep libs-corebase for value types; swift-corelibs CF for CFMachPort, CFRunLoop, CFBundle. Ships with Apple ICU.
Working
notifyd / ASL
Lightweight named-event bus and Apple System Logger — structured log records, BSD-text dual output, same C API.
Working
cfg
configd
One daemon owns network state, hostname, DNS. Apple’s configd ported as netconfigd with a Mach-RPC API.
Working
mdns
mDNSResponder
Apple’s Bonjour — multicast DNS and DNS-SD service discovery, ported as the system mDNS daemon with the same dns-sd API.
Working
io
IOKit registry
A replacement for devmatch/devd exposing an IOKit-shape IORegistry — IOServiceWaitQuiet, IORegistryEntryGetBusyState, and IOKitWaitQuiet.
Working
fs
DiskArbitration
DiskArbitration over libgeom + devctl(4).
In progress
bs
bootstrap_cmds
Darwin’s bootstrap_cmds — the Mach interface generator mig and friends. Core build tooling for the Mach RPC layer.
In progress
net
network_cmds
Darwin’s network_cmds — ifconfig, route, netstat and the networking userland.
In progress
fl
file_cmds
Darwin’s file_cmds — cp, mv, ls, chmod and the core file-manipulation utilities.
In progress
sh
shell_cmds
Darwin’s shell_cmds — shell-era basics: echo, test, kill, su, and their companions.
In progress
sys
system_cmds
Darwin’s system_cmds — ps, sysctl, login, and low-level system administration tools.
In progress
txt
text_cmds
Darwin’s text_cmds — text-processing utilities: sort, uniq, cut, cat, and friends.
In progress
adv
adv_cmds
Darwin’s adv_cmds — the advanced commands grab-bag: locale tooling, finger, last, and more.
In progress
pm
PowerManagement
Darwin’s PowerManagement — pmset and the power-management userland for sleep, wake, and battery policy.
In progress
img
IMG + ISO
A bootable disk image you can write to USB and boot today; an ISO follows later for CD/optical and virtual machine convenience.
In progress
ins
Installer
Lay down a fresh install — from tagged releases or rolling continuous builds alike.
Planned
upd
Updater
Move an existing system forward in place — tracking releases or the rolling continuous stream.
Planned
History
Where NextBSD came from.
A long lineage runs from Bell Labs UNIX, through Mach and NeXTSTEP, into<br>Darwin and the BSDs — and lands here. NextBSD Redux is the latest<br>pickup of work that has changed hands more than once.
1969
UNIX at Bell Labs.<br>AT&T’s Bell Labs builds UNIX — the operating system every system on this timeline ultimately descends from.
1977
1BSD — the Berkeley line begins.<br>UC Berkeley releases the first Berkeley Software Distribution, a set of enhancements layered on AT&T UNIX.
1983
4.2BSD: FFS and TCP/IP.<br>Berkeley ships the Fast File System and TCP/IP networking — storage and networking groundwork that later BSDs, and macOS, would inherit.
mid-1980s
Mach is born at Carnegie Mellon.<br>CMU develops the Mach microkernel — a message-passing foundation that becomes the kernel core of NeXTSTEP and, later, Darwin.
1985
Steve Jobs founds NeXT.<br>After leaving Apple, Jobs starts NeXT to build a new generation of workstations and software.
1989
NeXTSTEP ships.<br>NeXT releases NeXTSTEP — the Mach kernel and BSD userland under an object-oriented application layer. The blueprint NextBSD follows.
1993
FreeBSD and NetBSD fork from 386BSD.<br>The open BSD distributions emerge and carry the Berkeley lineage forward. FreeBSD becomes the base NextBSD builds on.
1996
Apple acquires NeXT.<br>NeXTSTEP — Mach, BSD, and the Objective-C runtime — comes back to Apple and becomes the foundation of its next operating system.
2000
Mac OS X on Darwin.<br>Apple ships Mac OS X atop Darwin — the Mach kernel fused with BSD userland — the open-source core under every Apple OS since.
2006
OpenDarwin winds down.<br>The effort to ship Darwin as a standalone, installable operating system ends — leaving the system layer open but homeless.
2015
The original NextBSD.<br>A sponsored project sets out to bring the Darwin system layer — Mach IPC, launchd, libdispatch, notifyd — onto a FreeBSD base.
2016
NextBSD funding ends.
2021
ravynOS begins.<br>A new macOS-compatible effort starts on a FreeBSD base,...