In context of computing, FreeBSD can be defined as Unix-like operating system (which is a free, open-source application) based on Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) UNIX. It is popularly known among the BSD-based operating systems, with an estimated installation base of about 75% or more. Owing to legal restraints, FreeBSD cannot be categorized as a UNIX system, even though it is acquiescence with UNIX internals and application programming interfaces (APIs). FreeBSD’s licensing terms endows developers with a high level of liberty to reuse it, likewise done by the other operating systems such as MAC OSX ( have used again many FreeBSD codes). Even though, FreeBSD is not classified as UNIX, MAC OSX does have a formal UNIX labeling.
FreeBSD is nowadays utilized by millions and millions of users across the globe, as well as some of the full of activity website over the Internet, such as Yahoo, Sony, etc.
End-users actually corroborate to the trustworthiness of FreeBSD, it has undeniably got remarkable constancy, and high performance is due to the following reasons:
- It is a comprehensive operating system environment comprising of a kernel, device drivers and a shell tool. In comparison to others, most Linux-based operating systems have an individually-developed kernel, application, and user-land utilities.
- Numerous imitation tools are built into FreeBSD, permitting the seamless integration of third-party software package, most of which employ the FreeBSD ports system.
- FreeBSD provisions a wide array of networking protocols, to name few are TCP/IP, IPv6, Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP), IPSec, Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX), and AppleTalk, thereby letting the end-users to assimilate FreeBSD-based computers with other operating systems running that too within the similar network