How is freebsd different from linux

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Learn more. Asked 10 years, 5 months ago. Active 5 years, 9 months ago. Viewed k times. Improve this question. Kevin Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. Hank Gay Hank Gay 3, 4 4 gold badges 22 22 silver badges 27 27 bronze badges. Tshepang It's possible that this is entirely a personal experience, and it's probably less common among people who have extensive Linux experience before they ever see a BSD.

Another explanation that I've come up with is that I learned most of what I know about BSD by reading the official project docs, yet I learned most of what I know about most Linux distros by Googling. Gentoo is again the exception their wiki was an excellent resource when I was exploring Gentoo , which makes me think I understand the reason for certain decisions better on those systems.

On Linux, you configure network interfaces with "ifconfig" First link is very interesting, thank you — marto. I remember thinking "This is awesome" the first time I stumbled across it. The closest I've seen is probably the Gentoo handbook. Show 10 more comments. NetBSD has a reputation for running on a ton of different hardware. OpenBSD has a well-deserved reputation for being extremely secure. Greg Cain Greg Cain 1, 6 6 silver badges 12 12 bronze badges.

What were you running before the FreeBSD? That was a while ago. And you still using it somewhere, i mean BSD? That was a few jobs ago. I'm not currently using it. I can't speak for my employer at the time. Jinxed For example, the recent release of Linux 4. But we have to wait for more time to hear announcement for support of same hardware. That's new hotness — Devesh Saini. Show 3 more comments. In practice, this difference is overrated, since the Principal Architect can require that code be backed out, and even in the Linux project several people are permitted to make changes.

On the other hand, there is a central repository, a single place where you can find the entire operating system sources, including all older versions. BSD projects maintain the entire "Operating System", not only the kernel. This distinction is only marginally useful: neither BSD nor Linux is useful without applications.

The applications used under BSD are frequently the same as the applications used under Linux. As a result of the formalized maintenance of a single SVN source tree, BSD development is clear, and it is possible to access any version of the system by release number or by date. SVN also allows incremental updates to the system: for example, the FreeBSD repository is updated about times a day.

Most of these changes are small. As with Linux, releases are assigned a number such as 1. In addition, the version number has a suffix indicating its purpose:. NetBSD uses a slightly different naming scheme and appends a single-letter suffix which indicates changes in the internal interfaces, for example NetBSD 1.

All new development on the system goes into this branch. By contrast, Linux maintains two separate code trees: the stable version and the development version.

Stable versions have an even minor version number, such as 2. Development versions have an odd minor version number, such as 2. In each case, the number is followed by a further number designating the exact release. In addition, each vendor adds their own userland programs and utilities, so the name of the distribution is also important.

Each distribution vendor also assigns version numbers to the distribution, so a complete description might be something like "TurboLinux 6. In contrast to the numerous Linux distributions, there are only four major open source BSDs. Each BSD project maintains its own source tree and its own kernel. In practice, though, there appear to be fewer divergences between the userland code of the projects than there is in Linux. It is difficult to categorize the goals of each project: the differences are very subjective.

FreeBSD aims for high performance and ease of use by end users, and is a favourite of web content providers. It runs on a number of platforms and has significantly more users than the other projects. It runs on machines from palmtops to large servers, and has even been used on NASA space missions. OpenBSD aims for security and code purity: it uses a combination of the open source concept and rigorous code reviews to create a system which is demonstrably correct, making it the choice of security-conscious organizations such as banks, stock exchanges and US Government departments.

Like NetBSD, it runs on a number of platforms. DragonFlyBSD aims for high performance and scalability under everything from a single-node UP system to a massively clustered system. DragonFlyBSD has several long-range technical goals, but focus lies on providing a SMP-capable infrastructure that is easy to understand, maintain and develop for.

It was not open source, though source code licenses were available at relatively low cost. It resembled FreeBSD in many ways. Support and source code may still be available from Wind River, but all new development is focused on the VxWorks embedded operating system. The BSD core of this operating system, Darwin , is available as a fully functional open source operating system for x86 and PPC computers.

In particular, any derivative work of a product released under the GPL must also be supplied with source code if requested. Now that we understand what a kernel is, we can move on and see what Linux, as a kernel, does in the operating system. The tweaking to the kernel along with the new applications loaded into it make each distribution different from another.

As mentioned earlier, the different distributions of BSD are all operating systems. And that makes BSD, like Linux, a kernel. Let us explain how exactly. To download additional software packages, BSD users use the ports system, which keeps these packages in source form.

The source code is compiled by the system each time the software is launched. While this can prove to be cumbersome, especially when running longer, more intricate codes, BSD systems can skip the compilation step upon each launch entirely if the program is installed in a binary state, thus alleviating the process to a great extent.

One of the fundamental differences between BSD and Linux is that of the Licensing system under which their distributions are released. When you download software from the Ports repository in BSD or install a distribution as a whole, the software or distribution is allocated to you under the BSD license, which is a custom license system employed by the BSD developers. However, the BSD developers have made it public that they have every intention of keeping it open-source in the future.

Under this licensing system, Linux developers are legally compelled to release each and every instance of changes made to the Linux kernel. The licensing system, in essence, makes sure that Linux remains open-source, no matter what changes are made to the kernel itself. For every software out there is a Linux compatible release. This is not the case for FreeBSD, which remains largely neglected for that reason. The Linux kernel makes writing and distributing software programs simpler as compared to other kernels, so developers are naturally inclined to work towards Linux releases.

The distribution, especially, is made even easier by the pre-installed binary package system that it facilitates.