[NikkiA]

Yes, 386BSD was free, and the precursor to FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD. BSD/386 was a different, commercial product though, available a few months earlier.

All 3 projects, BSD/386, Linux and 386BSD gained recognition over the span of about 6 months in 1992.

[LeFantome]

Yes, I know. Interesting that BSD/386 was pointing people at Linux. I guess they knew that 386BSD would eat their lunch. Perhaps they did not see Linux as real competition.