FreeBSD

Free and open-source Unix-like operating system / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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FreeBSD is a free and open-source Unix-like operating system descended from the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). The first version of FreeBSD was released in 1993 developed from 386BSD[3] and the current version runs on x86, ARM, PowerPC and RISC-V processors. The project is supported and promoted by the FreeBSD Foundation.

Quick facts: Developer, OS family, Working state, Source m...
FreeBSD
Freebsd_logo.svg
FreeBSD_13.0_boot_loader_screenshot.png
FreeBSD 13.0 bootloader with ASCII art logo
DeveloperThe FreeBSD Project
OS familyUnix-like (BSD)
Working stateCurrent
Source modelOpen source
Initial release1 November 1993; 30 years ago (1993-11-01)
Latest release14.0 (20 November 2023; 5 days ago (2023-11-20)) [±][1]
13.2 (11 April 2023; 7 months ago (2023-04-11)) [±][2]
Repository
Marketing targetServers, workstations, embedded systems, network firewalls
Package managerpkg
Platformsx86-64, ARM64, ARM32, IA-32, PowerPC, RISC-V
Kernel typeMonolithic with dynamically loadable modules
UserlandBSD
Default
user interface
Unix shells: sh or tcsh (user-selectable)
LicenseFreeBSD License, FreeBSD Documentation License
Official websitewww.freebsd.org
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FreeBSD maintains a complete system, delivering a kernel, device drivers, userland utilities, and documentation, as opposed to Linux only delivering a kernel and drivers, and relying on third-parties like GNU for system software.[4] The FreeBSD source code is generally released under a permissive BSD license, as opposed to the copyleft GPL used by Linux.

The FreeBSD project includes a security team overseeing all software shipped in the base distribution. A wide range of additional third-party applications may be installed from binary packages using the pkg package management system or from source via FreeBSD Ports,[5] or by manually compiling source code.

As of 2005, FreeBSD was the most popular open-source BSD operating system, accounting for more than three-quarters of all installed and permissively licensed BSD systems.[6] Much of FreeBSD's codebase has become an integral part of other operating systems such as Darwin (the basis for macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and tvOS), TrueNAS (an open-source NAS/SAN operating system), and the system software for the PlayStation 3[7][8] and PlayStation 4[9] game consoles. The other BSD systems (OpenBSD, NetBSD, and DragonFly BSD) also contain a large amount of FreeBSD code, and vice-versa[citation needed].

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