BSD Variants

FreeBSD

http://www.freebsd.org/

FreeBSD originally targetted getting the best possible performance on the 386 platform. Lately, it's expanded to a number of other platforms including Alpha and SPARC, as well as to the heirs of i386, Intel's Itanium, and AMD's Opteron. Its primary goal is to be as robust and efficient as possible on its various platforms, both for server and desktop roles.

``The power to serve'': FreeBSD aims for high performance and ease of use by end users, and is a favourite of web content providers. It runs on PCs and Compaq's Alpha processors. The FreeBSD project has significantly more users than the other projects.

NetBSD

http://www.netbsd.org/

NetBSD is aimed at running on as many platforms as possible. Its goal is to be the most portable OS on the planet, and it seems to do a pretty fair job at it.

NetBSD aims for maximum portability. In addition, the NetBSD project places particular importance on clean design. It runs on machines from palmtops to large servers, and has even been used on NASA space missions. It is a particularly good choice for running on old non-Intel hardware.

OpenBSD

http://www.openbsd.org/

OpenBSD is focused primarily (some would say 'solely') on security and related topics. Tight integration of security and auditability and cryptography and related issues are its primary goal.

OpenBSD aims for security and code purity. It uses a combination of the open source concept and rigorous code reviews to create a system which is demonstrably correct, making it the choice of security-conscious organizations such as banks, stock exchanges and US Government departments. Like NetBSD, it runs on a number of platforms.

BSD vs. Linux

If it ain't broke, don't fix it'': If you already use an open source operating system, and you are happy with it, there's probably no good reason to change.

  • BSD systems, in particular FreeBSD, can have notably higher performance than Linux. But this isn't across the board. In many cases, there is little or no difference in performance. In some cases, Linux may perform better than FreeBSD.
  • In general, BSD systems have a better reputation for reliability, mainly as a result of the more mature code base.
  • The BSD license may be more attractive than the GPL.
  • BSD can execute Linux code, while Linux can't execute BSD code. As a result, more software is available for BSD than for Linux.
  • If you're particularly security conscious, OpenBSD is the only game in town.