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FreeBSD, or “Free Berkeley Source Distribution” was conceived in 1993 and intended as a continuation of 386BSD, a Unix-like operating system. It ran on 32 bit PC compatible computer systems on the 80386 microprocessor.

From humble beginnings, FreeBSD code has been widely disseminated across other Unix based operating systems and can be found in diverse platforms such as Apple’s Mac OSX, OpenSolaris and Sony PlayStation’s OS.

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Focus on stability and performance

Includes kernel and drivers

Built in security and network performance optimizations

Handles high volume traffic effectively

Wide open licensing

Key features

One of the primary criticisms of any Linux distribution is that users have a hard time putting a system together when they have to find kernels, drivers, and other system components.

In contrast to Linux, FreeBSD maintains a complete operating system and as a project delivers kernel, device drivers and userland utilities. This creates a cohesive OS experience, more similar to what you’d find with Windows or Mac OS.

In addition to this, FreeBSD has a software repository of over 25,000 applications which are developed by 3rd parties.

FreeBSD provides industry leading scalability, network performance and security features. In the version 10 release, a new BSD licensed hypervisor was introduced as well as performance enhancing VMIO buffers aimed at reducing CPU usage on systems under heavy loads.

Key security concepts provided by FreeBSD include Firewalls, Jails, Secure Levels and Security Profiles creating one of the most secure operating systems available.

All of these features combine to be one of the reasons why major tech companies like Netflix chose FreeBSD as their OS backbone.

Most software that runs on Linux can also be compiled for use with FreeBSD or can be run using a built in compatibility layer and as of version 10.3, FreeBSD can also run 64-bit Linux binaries.

The FreeBSD Foundation maintains high quality documentation for the project which is available in several languages. In addition it maintains several mailing lists for its international community of volunteer contributors (or ‘committers’, in FreeBSD lingo).

FreeBSD is most at home in large enterprises who have high-scale computing requirements and dedicated software development and systems admin departments.

As a favourite operating system for security minded networking technologists, FreeBSD is commonly found in network routers, high volume mail & web servers as well as firewalls.

FreeBSD STRENGHTS & WEAKNESSES

Strengths

Advanced Security:

As a complete stack, FreeBSD maintains rock-solid security by providing an architecture which offers control on individual users, processes, networking and jails for each service.

Storage & Filesystems:

Implementing a number of innovative storage features, FreeBSD offers the ZFS and UFS file systems which allow for fast and efficient filesystem snapshots, disk encryption, journaling and caching.

Excellent Documentation:

FreeBSD has a reputation for providing complete, up to date and well referenced documentation.

Network performance:

FreeBSD is renowned for best-in-class network performance. WhatsApp is reported to have achieved 2 million tcp connections on a single server.

Stability:

The code base of FreeBSD is tightly controlled and has more conservative change policies in place. As a server OS, FreeBSD requires less updates & maintenance than with Linux, often making it the OS of choice for applications where downtime is not acceptable.

Weaknesses

Complexity:

FreeBSD has a steep learning curve and is considered much less user-friendly than Linux. As a desktop operating system, FreeBSD is for time-rich technical enthusiasts only.

Small, highly technical community:

As a niche operating system, FreeBSD has a much smaller community compared to Linux and less technical users may have a difficult time getting help and support

Slow release cycle:

Due to the conservative philosophy of FreeBSD and the smaller developer community, security or bug-fixing patches can be delayed

Software availability:

Vendor support is much lower for FreeBSD for hardware drivers and there are far fewer applications packaged ready for use with FreeBSD compared to Linux

Developer availability:

It can be difficult and expensive to hire qualified FreeBSD administrators and developers due to its lower market penetration.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

How much does FreeBSD cost?

FreeBSD is a free and open-source operating system with no costs association with installation or updates.

What is the development philosophy of FreeBSD?

FreeBSD is free software and aims to use the FreeBSD license where possible, however certain nonfree hardware abstraction layer modules are included for specific drivers in their source tree.

As FreeBSD grew out of a controlled engineering background, and it is focused on enterprise usage - development is well structured and conservative when introducing new features.

The FreeBSD Foundation supports the community through grants, project funding, education & advocacy and through sponsoring events & developer summits.

Which versions of FreeBSD do you offer?

We offer the latest stable version of FreeBSD. You also have the opportunity to install a specific version of FreeBSD using our IPMI interface.

What is the release cycle of FreeBSD?

There are at least two branches of FreeBSD under development at any given stage, the ~CURRENT branch represents the bleeding-edge and includes developmental features. A ~STABLE branch is created for each major version from which ~RELEASE is made every 4 to 6 months.

The latest stable version of FreeBSD is 11.1 released in July 2017, 11.2 is expected to be released in June 2018.

Is FreeBSD a good desktop Linux distribution?

While FreeBSD can be run on a desktop computer, it is most commonly used as a server OS.

Is FreeBSD a good Operating System for new unix users?

FreeBSD is not well suited for novice users. It is a better choice for experienced system administrators.

Is FreeBSD good for gaming?

FreeBSD is not designed for gaming and would not be a good unix choice if the primary purpose of the OS installation is for games.

Are there any derivatives of FreeBSD?

There are a number of operating system distributions based on FreeBSD including OpenServer, TrueOS, FreeNAS and DesktopBSD. Darwin, the core of MacOSX, includes a virtual file system and network stack derived from FreeBSD.

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