FreeBSD
The Power To Serve | |
FreeBSD bootloader with ASCII art logo in version 13.0 | |
| Developer | The FreeBSD Project |
|---|---|
| Written in | C (C11) |
| OS family | Unix-like (BSD) |
| Working state | Current |
| Source model | Open source |
| Initial release | 1 November 1993 |
| Latest release | 14.3 (10 June 2025) [±] 13.5 (11 March 2025) [±] |
| Repository | |
| Marketing target | Servers, workstations, embedded systems, network firewalls |
| Package manager | pkg |
| Platforms | Tier 1: 64-bit x86 (amd64), 64-bit ARM (originally only 32-bit x86, i386, 32-bit x86 now with tier 2 support and additionally 64-bit RISC-V, 32-bit ARMv7, 64-bit PowerPC; previously supported e.g. MIPS, IA-64 and SPARC) |
| Kernel type | Monolithic with dynamically loadable modules |
| Userland | BSD |
| Default user interface | Unix shells: sh or tcsh (user-selectable) csh (in the past) |
| License | FreeBSD License, FreeBSD Documentation License |
| Official website | www |
FreeBSD is a free-software Unix-like operating system descended from the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). The first version was released in 1993 developed from 386BSD, one of the first fully functional and free Unix clones on affordable home-class hardware, and has since continuously been the most commonly used BSD-derived operating system.
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 such as GNU for system software. The FreeBSD source code is generally released under a permissive BSD license, as opposed to the copyleft GPL used by Linux. The project includes a security team overseeing all software shipped in the base distribution. Third-party applications may be installed using the pkg package management system or from source via FreeBSD Ports. The project is supported and promoted by the FreeBSD Foundation.
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, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation Vita game consoles. The other current BSD systems (OpenBSD, NetBSD, and DragonFly BSD) also contain a large amount of FreeBSD code, and vice-versa.