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FreeBSD


Last Update: 2024-02-05 08:21 UTC


FreeBSD is a UNIX-like operating system for the i386, amd64, IA-64, arm, MIPS, powerpc, ppc64, PC-98 and UltraSPARC platforms based on U.C. Berkeley's "4.4BSD-Lite" release, with some "4.4BSD-Lite2" enhancements. It is also based indirectly on William Jolitz's port of U.C. Berkeley's "Net/2" to the i386, known as "386BSD", though very little of the 386BSD code remains. FreeBSD is used by companies, Internet Service Providers, researchers, computer professionals, students and home users all over the world in their work, education and recreation. FreeBSD comes with over 20,000 packages (pre-compiled software that is bundled for easy installation), covering a wide range of areas: from server software, databases and web servers, to desktop software, games, web browsers and business software - all free and easy to install.



Popularity (hits per day): 12 months: 22 (363), 6 months: 20 (380), 3 months: 22 (359), 4 weeks: 33 (305), 1 week: 33 (342)

Average visitor rating: 8.81/10 from 62 review(s).


FreeBSD Summary
Distribution FreeBSD
Home Page https://www.freebsd.org/
Mailing Lists https://www.freebsd.org/community/mailinglists.html
User Forums https://forums.freebsd.org/
Alternative User Forums UnitedBSD
Documentation https://www.freebsd.org/docs/https://wiki.freebsd.org/
Screenshots  
Screencasts
Download Mirrors https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/mirrors/
Bug Tracker https://www.freebsd.org/support/bugreports.html
Related Websites FreeBSD NewsThe FreeBSD DiaryThe FreeBSD MallFreeBSD for Raspberry PiFreshPortsFreeBSD PortsFreeBSD System Administration TrainingDaemonForumsBSDNexusThe FreeBSD FoundationManual PagesWikipediaBSDForen.de (German) • BSDGuru (Polish)
Reviews 12.x: ArstechnicaDistroWatch
11.x: Pro-Linux (German) • DistroWatch
10.x: DistroWatch
9.x: OSNewsDistroWatch
8.x: O'Reilly BroadcastLWN
7.x: Linuxoid (Russian) • Wordpress
6.x: BlogspotServerWatchabout LinuxTuxmachines
5.x: DistroWatchOSNews
4.x: OSNews
Where To Donate, Buy, or Try The FreeBSD MallDonate

Recent Related News and Releases
  Releases announcements with download links and checksums:
 • 2023-11-20: BSD Release: FreeBSD 14.0
 • 2023-11-04: Development Release: FreeBSD 14.0-RC4
 • 2023-10-28: Development Release: FreeBSD 14.0-RC3
 • 2023-10-21: Development Release: FreeBSD 14.0-RC2
 • 2023-10-14: Development Release: FreeBSD 14.0-RC1
 • 2023-04-11: BSD Release: FreeBSD 13.2
 • 2022-12-06: BSD Release: FreeBSD 12.4
 • 2022-11-12: Development Release: FreeBSD 12.4-RC2
 • 2022-11-05: Development Release: FreeBSD 12.4-RC1
 • 2022-05-16: BSD Release: FreeBSD 13.1
 • 2022-04-15: Development Release: FreeBSD 13.1-RC3
 • 2022-04-08: Development Release: FreeBSD 13.1-RC2
 • More FreeBSD releases...

  Headlines:
 • 2023-12-09 FreeBSD 12.x nears its end of life
 • 2023-11-22 An overview of problems in FreeBSD 14.0
 • 2023-11-01 FreeBSD publishes third quarter status report
 • 2023-08-22 FreeBSD getting a port of Linux's NVIDIA driver
 • 2023-08-10 FreeBSD 13.1 reaches the end of its supported life
 • 2023-07-27 FreeBSD imports OpenSSL 3 and adds support for BATMAN
 • 2023-06-17 FreeBSD turns 30 years old
 • 2023-04-19 FreeBSD publishes quarterly update
 • 2023-03-02 FreeBSD core utilities ported to Linux
 • 2023-01-26 FreeBSD publishes quarterly status report
 • More FreeBSD headlines...

Table Notes and Explanations
  • Select view:
  • To compare the software in this project to the software available in other distributions, please see our Compare Packages page.
  • Notes: In case where multiple versions of a package are shipped with a distribution, only the default version appears in the table. For indication about the GNOME version, please check the "nautilus" and "gnome-shell" packages. The Apache web server is listed as "httpd" and the Linux kernel is listed as "linux". The KDE desktop is represented by the "plasma-desktop" package and the Xfce desktop by the "xfdesktop" package.
  • Colour scheme: green text = latest stable version, red text = development or beta version. The function determining beta versions is not 100% reliable due to a wide variety of versioning schemes.
Feature 14-CURRENT 13-STABLE 14.0
Release Date 2024-02-05 2024-02-05 2023-11-14
End Of Life      
Price (US$) Free Free Free
Image Size (MB)     200-3200
Free Download Ports Ports ISO
Installation Text mode Text mode Text mode
Default Desktop      
Package Management TXZ TXZ TXZ
Release Model Rolling Semi Fixed
Office Suite Calligra, GOffice, LibreOffice Calligra, GOffice, LibreOffice Calligra, GOffice, LibreOffice
Processor Architecture aarch64, amd64, armv6, i686, powerpc, powerpc64, sparc64 aarch64, amd64, armv6, i486, powerpc, powerpc64, sparc64 aarch64, amd64, armv6, i486, powerpc, powerpc64, sparc64
Init Software RC RC RC
Journaled File Systems UFS2 SU+J UFS2 + gjournal UFS2 + gjournal
Multilingual Yes Yes Yes
Asian Language Support Yes Yes Yes
Full Package List 14-current 13-stable 14.0
abiword (3.0.5) 3.0.5 3.0.5 3.0.5
alsa-lib (1.2.11) 1.2.10 1.2.10 1.2.2
amdgpu (23.0.0) 22.0.0 22.0.0 --
bash (5.2.21) 5.2 5.2 5.2
bind (9.18.21) 9.18.20 9.18.20 0.7.0
chromium (121.0.6167.139) 120.0.6099.224 120.0.6099.224 117.0.5938.149
cups (2.4.7) 2.4.7 2.4.7 2.4.6
dhcp (4.4.3-P1) 4.4.3P1 4.4.3P1 1.3.1
e2fsprogs (1.47.0) -- -- 1.47.0
firefox (122.0) 122.0 122.0 115.3.11
freetype (2.13.2) 2.13.2 2.13.2 2.13.1
gcc (13.2.0) 12 12 12
gimp (2.10.36) 2.10.32 2.10.32 2.10.322
glibc (2.39) -- -- --
gnome-shell (45.3) 42.4 42.4 42.4
gnucash (5.5) 5.5 5.5 5.4
gnumeric (1.12.56) 1.12.52 1.12.52 1.12.52
grub (2.12) -- -- 2.02
gtk (4.12.5) 4.12.5 4.12.5 4.12.3
httpd (2.4.58) 2.4.58 2.4.58 2.4.57
inkscape (1.3.1) 1.3.2 1.3.2 1.3
k3b (23.08.4) 23.08.4 23.08.4 23.08.1
kmod (31) -- -- --
krita (5.2.2) 5.2.2 5.2.2 5.1.5
LibreOffice (24.2.0) 7.6.4.1 7.6.4.1 7.6.2.1
linux (6.7.3) -- -- --
lxpanel (0.10.1) 0.9.3 0.9.3 0.9.3
mariadb (11.1.3) 10.6.16 10.6.16 --
mate-desktop (1.26.2) 1.26.0 1.26.0 1.26.0
mesa (24.0.0) 23.3.4 23.3.4 22.3.7
mysql (8.3.0) 8.1.0 8.1.0 3.3.0
nautilus (45.2.1) 42.2 42.2 42.2
NVIDIA (545.29.06) 535.146.02 535.146.02 --
openbox (3.6.1) 3.6 3.6 3.6
openjdk (21.0.2) 8u392 8u392 8.382.05.1
openssh (9.6p1) 9.6p1 9.6p1 --
openssl (3.2.1) 3.0.12 3.0.12 1.1.1w
perl (5.38.2) 5.36.3 5.36.3 --
php (8.3.2) 8.3.2 8.3.2 --
plasma-desktop (5.27.10) 5.27.10 5.27.10 --
postfix (3.8.5) 3.8.5 3.8.5 3.8.21
postgresql (16.1) 16.1 16.1 15.4
Python (3.12.1) 3.9.18 3.9.18 3.9
qt (6.6.1) 5.15.12 5.15.12 6.5.3
samba (4.19.4) 4.16.11 4.16.11 --
systemd (255.3) -- -- --
thunderbird (115.7.0) 115.7.0 115.7.0 115.3.2
vim (9.1) 9.1 9.1 9.0
vlc (3.0.20) 3.0.20 3.0.20 3.0.18
wayland (1.22.0) 1.22.0 1.22.0 1.22.0
xfdesktop (4.18.1) 4.18.1 4.18.1 4.18.1
xorg-server (21.1.11) 21.1.11 21.1.11 21.1.8


Reader Ratings
Reader supplied reviews for FreeBSD

Average rating
8.8
from 62 review(s)



What are your thoughts on FreeBSD?
Please include a few pros and a few cons, along with your overall impression of the operating system.
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Version:

Rating:    out of 10

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Past reviews - sort by:

Version: 14.0
Rating: 9
Date: 2024-02-03
Votes: 4


Switched from Big Corps Linux to FreeBSD to revive my last "purchase" a PackardBell DOT S, well I've purchased only the power supply the netbook is a gift of a friend unable to use other than windows so it has dismissed the netbook, cause Linux acpi seems designed to make old hardware unusable and make tanking hardware manufaturers sell unsold.

I used for a while ten years ago PC-BSD but I was anyway scared cause FreeBSD is not for everyone as PC-BSD instead was.

What to say... really impressed!

Yes, it has been a loot easier for me with a *nix net admin certificate and 22 years GNU/Linux experience but if someone is tired of Big Corps possessed Linux FreeBSD is the only quick way.

It works flawlessly with only 2GB ram on an old Intel Atom N280 also with XFCE and Firefox.

I gave 9 instead of 10 only cause it's easier to get rid of local_unbound and install port's unbound than to figure out how to configure local unbond to resolve the addresses written in browser, the only thing I use it for cause in Italy DNS are poised by ISP 's and a lot of sites, especially of android's app are obscured, and cause to configure wireless with WPA it's better to master a little the command line.

To dirt hands pays, this is written with FreeBSD 14 running on the DOT S, give it a try if you have old PC's cause Big Corps Linux has been designed to let users scrap still functioniing hardware.

Btw. If FreeBSD guys would make the installation and configuration a little more noobs proof... :-D


Was this review helpful? Yes No
Version: 14.0
Rating: 8
Date: 2024-01-09
Votes: 0


I struggled with updating from 13.2 to 14.0, so I did a fresh install. I prefer XCFE but I was unable to to get it to initialize with startx using Xfwm, so I installed plasma. XFCE (Xfwm4) is now a login option with SDDM. Plasma Wayland did not work on my Lenovo 730 i7-8550U, but Plasma X11 works fine.

I am unable to activate wifi; pciconf -lv shows Realtek 'RTL8822BE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WiFi adapter'. WiFi is not needed for my installation. I did not get wifi running on 13.2 either.

I use "# ntp 0.freebsd.ntp.ntp.ord" to correct to local ime from UTC, even though configuration seems correctly set to CST.

FreeBSD 14.0 is fully functional otherwise and a satisfying desktop solution for my laptop. I wouldn't recommend it for a machine where WiFi is needed.


Was this review helpful? Yes No
Version: 14.0
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-11-28
Votes: 42


The new FreeBSD 14.0-RELEASE is definitely stacked with improvements all over the place!

Early Phoronix tests also seem to confirm these improvements (performance-wise), I think specifically linked to the upgrade of OpenZFS version...

The Linux emulation layer is better now as well, which is pretty useful when you want to run a certain app not yet available on FreeBSD.

It's good to see the project continuing its growth, especially given the far less human resources it has, compared to Linux.

Totally recommended to people who value and prioritize stability.


Was this review helpful? Yes No

See all 62 reader reviews of FreeBSD...


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