FreeBSD, like OpenBSD, is an offshoot of the work done with Unix at the University of California at Berkeley. The emphasis during it’s development was on cross-platform compatibility and maximizing utilization of system resources. FreeBSD, much like Debian Linux, is a solid choice for a hosting platform.
FreeBSD is free While you might expect an operating system with these features to sell for a high price, FreeBSD is available free of charge and comes with full source code.
Powerful Internet Solutions
FreeBSD makes an ideal Internet or Intranet server. It provides robust network services under the heaviest loads and uses memory efficiently to maintain good response times for thousands of simultaneous user processes.
The FreeBSD developers are as concerned about security as they are about performance. FreeBSD includes kernel support for IP firewalling, as well other services, such as IP proxy gateways. If you put your corporate servers on the Internet, any computer running FreeBSD can act as a network firewall to protect them from outside attack.
Run Several Applications
With over 24,000 ported libraries and applications, FreeBSD supports applications for desktop, server, appliance, and embedded environments.
There is no doubt that so-called open systems are the requirement for today’s computing applications. But no commercial vendor-supplied solution is more open than one which includes full source code to the entire operating system, including the kernel and all of the system daemons, programs, and utilities. You can modify any part of FreeBSD to suit your personal, organizational, or corporate needs.
Cutting Edge Features
FreeBSD offers advanced networking, performance, security and compatibility features today which are still missing in other operating systems, even some of the best commercial ones.
No matter what the application, an operating system should take advantage of every resource available. FreeBSD’s focus on performance, networking, and storage combines with ease of system administration and comprehensive documentation to realize the full potential of any computer.
FreeBSD’s distinguished roots derive from the BSD software releases from the Computer Systems Research Group at the University of California, Berkeley. Over twenty years of work have been put into enhancing FreeBSD, adding industry-leading scalability, network performance, management tools, file systems, and security features. As a result, FreeBSD may be found across the Internet, in the operating system of core router products, running root name servers, hosting major web sites, and as the foundation for widely used desktop operating systems. This is only possible because of the diverse and world-wide membership of the volunteer FreeBSD Project.
FreeBSD 9.0, brings many new features and performance enhancements with a special focus on desktop support and security features.
Advanced Embedded Platform
FreeBSD brings advanced network operating system features to appliance and embedded platforms, from higher-end Intel-based appliances to Arm, PowerPC, and shortly MIPS hardware platforms.
From mail and web appliances to routers, time servers, and wireless access points, vendors around the world rely on FreeBSD’s integrated build and cross-build environments and advanced features as the foundation for their embedded products. And the Berkeley open source license lets them decide how many of their local changes they want to contribute back.
