Datasheet

If you are someone who has used Linux before, transitioning to a BSD system shouldn’t
be too hard. However, BSD systems tend to behave a bit more like older UNIX systems
than they do like Linux. Many interfaces are text-based, offering lots of power if you
know what you are doing. Despite that fact, however, all the major desktop components
that, for example, you get with the GNOME desktop environment are available with
BSD systems. So you don’t have to live on the command line.
Here is a list of popular BSD-based operating systems that are still being developed
today:
❑ FreeBSD (
www.freebsd.org) is the most popular of the BSD operating system
distributions. It can be operated as a server, workstation, or desktop system, but
has also been used in network appliances and special-purpose embedded systems.
It has a reputation for maximum performance.
❑ NetBSD (
www.netbsd.org) has a reputation for being very portable, with versions
of NetBSD running as an embedded system on a variety of hardware. NetBSD can
run on anything from 32-bit and 64-bit PCs to personal digital assistants (PDAs) to
VAX minicomputers.
❑ OpenBSD (
www.netbsd.org) is a popular system for network servers, although it
can operate as a workstation or network appliance as well. The goal of OpenBSD is
to attain maximum security. Unlike FreeBSD and NetBSD, which are covered under
the BSD license, OpenBSD is covered primarily under the more-permissive Internet
Systems Consortium (ISC) license.
❑ DragonFly BSD (
www.dragonflybsd.org) was originally based on FreeBSD. Its
goal was to develop technologies different from FreeBSD in such areas as symmet-
ric multiprocessing and concurrency. So the focus has been on expanding features
in the kernel.
Other free (as in no cost, as well as freedom to do what you like with the code)
operating systems based on BSD include Darwin (on which Mac OS X is based)
and desktop-oriented systems such as PC-BSD and DesktopBSD. FreeSBIE is a
live CD BSD system. Proprietary operating systems that have been derived from
BSD include:
❑ Mac OS X (
www.apple.com/macosx) is produced by Apple, Inc. and focuses on
adding an easy-to-use graphical interface to sell with its line of computers. There
is also a Mac OS X Server product available. Although Mac OS X was originally
based on Darwin, it is considered a closed-source operating system with open
source components.
❑ SunOS (
www.sun.com) was developed by Sun Microsystems and was very popu-
lar as a professional workstation system. Sun stopped development of SunOS in
favor of Solaris. However, because Solaris represented a merging of SunOS and
UNIX System V, many BSD features made their way into Solaris.
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Chapter 1: Starting with BSD Systems
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