FreeBSD to interoperate with Unix platforms

And now for something slightly different: some FreeBSD news. The FreeBSD Project was recently given permission to use the Posix standard for Unix-based application portability.

The permission was given by the IEEE and the Open Group, which partly controls Unix standards and specifications. This means that users could expect to see more applications being available to run on commercial Posix-based Unix platforms and the open-source FreeBSD operating systems.

Posix is an IEEE standard that defines how applications talk to Unix operating systems. Based on Unix System V and BSD Unix, Posix allows applications written for one type of Unix to run on other Unix-based platforms.

The deal will allow The FreeBSD Project to use the 1400 interfaces included in the Posix standard, as well as all headers, system interfaces and utilities. Granting the use of the IEEE 1003.1 Posix standard will give application developers a better understanding of how to write applications that work cross-platform between standard Unix and open-source FreeBSD platforms, experts say.

Called by some as "the other free Unix," the FreeBSD Project was started in 1992 and is based on technology from the Berkeley Systems istribution of Unix, which was developed at the University of California at Berkeley - and later went on to power operating systems from Sun to Apple Macintosh. FreeBSD runs on x86 compatible processors, AMD64, HP Alpha, IBM Power and Sun UltraSPARC chip architectures.