William Jolitz

{{Short description|American software programmer (1957–2022)}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2022}}

{{Infobox person

| name = William Frederick Jolitz

| image =

| alt =

| caption =

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1957|02|22}}

| birth_place = Muskegon, Michigan, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2022|03|2|1957|02|22}}

| death_place =

| nationality =

| other_names =

| occupation = Software Engineer

| years_active =

| known_for =

| notable_works = Developing the 386BSD operating system

}}

William Frederick Jolitz (February 22, 1957 – March 2, 2022), commonly known as Bill Jolitz, was an American software engineer best known for developing the 386BSD operating system from 1989 to 1994 along with his wife Lynne Jolitz.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H4q1t-jAcBIC&dq=Jolitz&pg=PA41 |title=The Art of Unix Programming |date=September 23, 2003 |publisher=Addison-Wesley Professional |isbn=978-0-132-46588-5 |page=41 |last=Raymond |first=Eric S. |author-link=Eric S. Raymond}}

Before 386BSD, Bill Jolitz designed the Symmetric 375{{cite web

| url=http://cpu-ns32k.net/Symmetric.html

| title=The Web Site to Remember National Semiconductor's Series 32000 Family

| first=Udo

| last=Möller

| date=2020-03-11

| access-date=2022-11-14}} with an NSC 16032 (NS32000) CPU running 4.2BSD. His own Symmetric Computer Systems sold them from 1987 until 1988.

Jolitz received his BA in Computer Science from UC Berkeley.

He and his wife resided in Los Gatos, California.{{cite web

| title=Lynne Jolitz

| url=http://lynne.telemuse.net/

| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190120163036/https://lynne.telemuse.net/

| archive-date=January 20, 2019}}

On March 2, 2022, Jolitz died from sarcoma.{{Cite web |title=Obituary of William Frederick Jolitz |url=https://386bsd.org/memoriam |author=Lynne Greer Jolitz|access-date=April 17, 2022 |website=386bsd.org}} His death was announced on April 8, 2022, on The Unix Heritage Society (TUHS) mailing list.{{Cite web |last=Cole |first=Clem |date=April 8, 2022 |title=[TUHS] Sad News - we last two wonderful people in the past few weeks. |url=https://www.tuhs.org/pipermail/tuhs/2022-April/025643.html |access-date=April 8, 2022}}