No matter what application, whether as a desktop system, or installed as an Internet server, FreeBSD has the power and the flexibility required to meet even the most demanding situations. FreeBSD, however, requires more of an administrative approach than most over-the-counter operating systems. FreeBSD requires less administration per functionality than several operating systems. Given the correct approach, managing a FreeBSD system is simple and can be quite fun.
FreeBSD is a multi-user system: several people can access the same computer at the same time. This includes more than “File Serving” capabilities of other operating systems. The users connected to the FreeBSD machine have access all their normal functionality as though they were actually at the server console. Users can even interact if they chose.
FreeBSD® is an advanced operating system for X86 compatible (including Pentium ® and Athlon™ AMD64 compatible (including Opteron™, Athlon ™ 64 and EM64T) architectures. It is deriving from BSD, the version of UNIX® developed at the University of California, Berkeley.
In a sense, UNIX is the touchstone of the Internet. There is now a string emphasis on the standard protocols of the Internet (TCP/IP, DNS, HTTP, FT, SMTP, POP3, and IMAP) and most of those standards were developed or refined on the UNIX operating system. FreeBSD addresses both issues: it is based on one of the standards of the UNIX world, BSD 4.4, optimized for common, inexpensive Intel-based hardware and (as the name implies) it is free.
Free BSD offers advanced networking, performance, security and compatibility features today, which are still missing in other operating systems, even some of the most known commercial ones.
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 quality of FreeBSD combined with today’s low-cost, high-speed PC hardware makes FreeBSD a very economical alternative to commercial UNIX workstations. It is well suited for a great number of both desktop and server applications.
FreeBSD is rapidly developing operating system. Keeping up on the latest developments can be really difficult. The following projects are always in actuality:
- GNOME on FreeBSD
- Java on FreeBSD
- KDE on FreeBSD
November, 17, 2006” the first release candidate of FreeBSD 6.2 is available. ISO images for Tier-1 architectures are available on most of the FreeBSD mirror sites.
FreeBSD has many practical applications:
- Server applications
o Run a turnkey www server
o Handle Internet email
o Domain Name Service
o Allow dial-up access to the Internet through PPP
o Allow Windows users to map network drives and share server resources
o Act as a network router
o Network file sharing
o Translate network address, allowing to conserve the registered IP address
o Be an Internet firewall or gateway
o An affordable UNIX WINDOWS Workstation
o Run a wide range of FreeBSD Desktop applications
§ Word Processing
§ Spreadsheets
§ Database processing
§ Personal finance
§ Multi-media
§ Video conferencing
Run applications from other platforms:
- Linux
- BSDi
- SCO
- Windows
Provide also security control for a single user and run other company specific applications.
The first point packages have been included with the test builds and a few minor nits have been noticed already. In particular these are known problems, which will be addresses before RC2.
Its future is formed by additional platforms that are in various stages of development. It is no difficult to contribute to FreeBSD. The main development direction is coming from the large amount of programmers that can add or improve its features.
