FreeBSD
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FreeBSD is a free, Unix-like operating system derived from AT&T Unix via the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) branch through the 386BSD and 4.4BSD operating systems. It is not a clone of UNIX, however it works much in the same way as UNIX, featuring UNIX-compliant internals and system API's.
FreeBSD is held in generally high regard and is often characterized as dependable and sturdy.
Here are a few key features of FreeBSD:
- Preemptive multitasking with dynamic priority adjustment in order to ensure smooth and fair sharing of the computer between applications and users, even under the heaviest of loads.
- Multi-user facilities which allow many people to use a FreeBSD system simultaneously for a variety of things. This means, for example, that system peripherals such as printers and tape drives are properly shared between all users on the system or the network and that individual resource limits can be placed on users or groups of users, protecting critical system resources from over-use.
- Strong TCP/IP networking with support for industry standards such as SCTP, DHCP, NFS, NIS, PPP, SLIP, IPsec, and IPv6. This means that your FreeBSD machine can interoperate easily with other systems as well as act as an enterprise server, providing vital functions such as NFS (remote file access) and email services or putting your organization on the Internet with WWW, FTP, routing and firewall (security) services.
- Memory protection ensures that applications (or users) cannot interfere with each other. Therefore, one application crashing will not affect others in any way.
- FreeBSD is a 32-bit operating system (64-bit on the Alpha, Itanium, AMD64, and UltraSPARC) and was designed as such from the ground up.
- The industry standard X Window System (X11R7) provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for the cost of a common VGA card and monitor and comes with full sources.
- Binary compatibility with many programs built for Linux, SCO, SVR4, BSDI and NetBSD.
- Thousands of ready-to-run applications are available from the FreeBSD ports and packages collection.
- Thousands of additional and easy-to-port applications are available on the Internet. FreeBSD is source code compatible with most popular commercial UNIX® systems and thus most applications require few, if any, changes to compile.
- Demand paged virtual memory and “merged VM/buffer cache” design efficiently satisfies applications with large appetites for memory while still maintaining interactive response to other users.
- SMP support for machines with multiple CPUs.
- A full complement of C, C++, and Fortran development tools. Many additional languages for advanced research and development are also available in the ports and packages collection.
- Source code for the entire system means you have the greatest degree of control over your environment. Why be locked into a proprietary solution at the mercy of your vendor when you can have a truly open system?
- Extensive online documentation.
