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What is FreeBSD?
FreeBSD is an advanced operating system for x86 compatible,
DEC Alpha, IA-64, PC-98 and UltraSPARC® architectures.
It is derived from BSD, the version of UNIX® developed
at the University of California, Berkeley. It is developed
and maintained by a
large team of individuals. Additional platforms
are in various stages of development.
Cutting edge features
FreeBSD offers advanced networking, performance, security
and compatibility features
today which are still missing in other operating systems,
even some of the best commercial ones.
Powerful Internet solutions
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.
Visit our gallery
for examples of FreeBSD powered applications and services.
Run a huge number of applications
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.
Easy to install
FreeBSD can be installed from a variety of media including
CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, floppy disk, magnetic tape, an MS-DOS®
partition, or if you have a network connection, you can install
it directly over anonymous FTP or NFS. All you need is a pair
of blank, 1.44MB floppies and these directions.
FreeBSD is free
While you might expect an operating system with these features
to sell for a high price, FreeBSD is available free
of charge and comes with full source code. If you would
like to try it out, more
information is available.
Contributing to FreeBSD
It is easy to contribute to FreeBSD. All you need to do is
find a part of FreeBSD which you think could be improved and
make those changes (carefully and cleanly) and submit that
back to the Project by means of send-pr or a committer, if
you know one. This could be anything from documentation to
artwork to source code. See the Contributing
to FreeBSD article for more information.
Even if you are not a programmer, there are other
ways to contribute to FreeBSD. The FreeBSD Foundation is a
non-profit organization for which direct contributions are
fully tax deductible. Please contact bod@FreeBSDFoundation.org
for more information or write to: The FreeBSD Foundation,
7321 Brockway Dr. Boulder, CO 80303. USA
Silicon Breeze has also sculpted and cast the BSD
Daemon in metal and is now donating 15% of all proceeds from
these statuettes back to the FreeBSD Foundation. The complete
story and information on how to order a BSD Daemon is available
from this
page.
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