FreeBSD

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FreeBSD is a Unix-like, POSIX-compliant, BSD-descendant open-source operating system. It was developed as a single operating system, including the kernel and most of the core utilities, ensuring full portability. This also makes FreeBSD highly regarded among OS enthusiasts for its solid guideline compliance and robustness.

FreeBSD runs on x86 architectures, but also on DEC Alpha, UltraSPARC, Itanium, AMD64 and PPC. Support for ARM and MIPS is in development.

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Features

FreeBSD is based on a BSD-derived monolithic kernel with full support for SMP, preemptive multitasking and multithreading. Several advanced security features are available, most of which have been introduced by TrustedBSD. It includes support for BSM audit implementation, through OpenBSM.

the Ports collection includes a simple and powerful way of installing software, using Makefiles spread around a standard hierarchy. Software can be installed using a simple make command, and the list of packages can be automatically renewed from the Internet by various means. Each port has a maintainer who is responsible for keeping it current.

The Ports collection includes more than 14,000 ports, making it the primary choice for most FreeBSD users, who rarely need to rely on external sources to install software. Many ports also have a precompiled version called package.

FreeBSD also includes binary compatibility with some Unix-like operating systems, including Solaris and Linux. Many commercial, closed-source, Linux-only software can be ran using this feature, including StarOffice, Adobe Acrobat, VMware, Quake 4 and Doom 3. The performance difference is not noticeable. Still, not all Linux programs can run using this compatibility layer, with a notable exception being Cedega.

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FreeBSD as a base

FreeBSD code has been used for several other operating systems. Apple's Mac OS X includes a significant amount of FreeBSD code. VxWorks, a real-time operating system that is used even in some airplane computer systems, is also based on FreeBSD. Even Linux has some pieces of code derived from FreeBSD.

It is also the base of various derived distributions, including PC-BSD, BSDeviant, Ging and DragonFly BSD.

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