Forget Windows and Linux for the moment: the less famous BSD may be what you need

Forget Windows and Linux for the moment: the less famous BSD may be what you need-Linux general technology-Linux technology and application information. Here is the details. Forget Windows and Linux for the moment: the less famous BSD may be what you need

Linux is a great operating system jointly developed by Linus Torvalds and others.
. However, although Linux occupies the most important position, ISP and System Administrators often choose one of BSD as the operating system, and BSD is a type of Operating System Based on code sharing, over the past 20 years, top schools in the United States have been studying it.

What is BSD? If you are looking for a non-Windows operating system, why should you consider using them?

Academic Origins
BSD is the abbreviation of Berkeley Software Distribution, a collection of Software developed by UC Berkeley. Initially, BSD emerged as an additional software package for AT&T's earlier Unix versions, and then it gradually evolved into a complete, A highly complex Unix-style operating system is the first to integrate network functions.

BSD is perhaps the most robust, secure, and trustable operating system through the efforts of an academic institution pursuing perfection and the tests of a few demanding generations of students. It is common for a BSD-based operating system to run without maintenance or restart for several years. Because BSD is developed in an open code environment, it is free for all customers (including software developers who want to implant it into commercial products. Network code from BSD is a central part of almost all modern operating systems, including Linux, OS/2, and almost every Windows version since Windows 95.

Secret Weapon
If BSD is so good, why haven't they become the market leader like Linux? The most important reason is culture. Many Linux developers regard themselves as software revolutionaries. However, members of academic groups (where BSD is truly rooted) focus more on results rather than the product. BSD also has loyal followers among system administrators and ISP users, but these people generally prefer to use their BSD as a secret weapon rather than promoting that they are using this operating system.

As a result, few people realized that each version of BSD is similar to Yahoo! The same infrastructure for large websites, as well as advantageous support for highly reliable embedded systems such as IBM InterJet and Maxtor network storage servers. NetBSD, a variant of BSD, is considered the world's most lightweight operating system and can run on different CPUs (more than 64 types) and hundreds of computers of different brands and models.

Currently, there are five popular BSD operating systems, three of which are FreeBSD (www.freebsd.org), NetBSD (www.netbsd.org), and OpenBSD (www.openbsd.org), which are authorized by BSD, the operating system and source code are free of charge and anyone can use them for any purpose. The remaining two BSD/OS and Mac OS X are commercial products. They are based on open BSD code and have special advantages and distinctive technologies. In this article, we will discuss free versions. For More information about the advantages of BSD/OS and Mac OS X and BSD authorization based on Linux General Public License, see the other article "More about BSD" on our site ".

FreeBSD
FreeBSD was developed based on ephemeral BSD, a BSD version for Intel 80386 chips developed by Berkeley's computer scientist Bill Jolitz.
. For this reason, FreeBSD always runs best on 32-bit x86 machines. In the Free BSD, it works best with PC compatible machines, and supports the maximum number of external devices compatible with PC. Although FreeBSD can run on the Alpha processor and is porting to other architectures, you should regard it as an operating system mainly for x86 systems.

FreeBSD is the most famous among Free BSD. It has the most powerful development team, receives the most feedback, and has the most users. It may also be the easiest to install in all free operating systems-especially if you want to install it through the Internet instead of buying a CD.

Linux publishers often make it difficult to install their copies over the Internet. After all, their business depends on the sale of CDs. FreeBSD does not: all its requirements are two floppy disks (easily created using tools and ing files on the FreeBSD Web site) and a suitable network connection. Start from the first floppy disk and insert the second one. The installer will help you select Configuration Options, download the entire system from the Internet, and install everything correctly.

Those who want a CD can also get it from FreeBSD Mall (www.freebsdmall.com) of Wind River Systems or from Cheap Bytes (www.cheapbytes.com. You can also use an ISO ing file on the FreeBSD Web site to create a CD.

Another strength of FreeBSD is its wide range of application software support-more than 5800 free programs can be downloaded immediately and added to FreeBSD's system (www.freebsd.org/ports/index.html ). In fact, all the software you need to build a workstation or a commercial server has been installed with FreeBSD or can be added to the system by yourself.

In addition, like OpenBSD and NetBSD, FreeBSD can actually run all Solaris programs for Linux, SCO Unix, or Intel. Like Linux, FreeBSD uses the X Window System and all desktop and graphical user interfaces developed for that protocol, including KDE, GNOME, and programs written for both.

Finally, FreeBSD has the most references for new users. FreeBSD Handbook (www. freebsd.org/handbook) provides excellent instructions for new customers. Many publishing companies have introduced instructions for beginner and advanced users.

In short, FreeBSD is a powerful challenger for Linux. It may provide outstanding stability, simplicity, and convenience for installation.

OpenBSD

OpenBSD is another free BSD school creature, known as the world's safest Operating System
. OpenBSD homepage (www. openbsd.org) reports that OpenBSD "by default, there is no small security vulnerability within four years of installation", which means (actually anyone knows) none of the OpenBSD versions released in the past four years have been attacked by Internet attacks. (Of course, you can also make any operating system-including OpenBSD-vulnerable if you do not correctly Configure the server or run insecure software that causes intruders to access .) OpenBSD is also fully integrated with cryptographic security software to ensure data security.

OpenBSD is not the most representative of integrating Unix components, nor is it the fastest running. However, in these fields, it is not too bad. This operating system is very small, but very efficient. It can run well on 486 machines with only 16 MB of memory-you must know that such a hardware configuration cannot run Windows 2000. Other operating systems do not have any high-reliability records created by OpenBSD on security issues. Some remote root directory problems usually occur on Microsoft's operating system every month, such as Windows 2000. Many recently released Linux have become the targets of attacks against the Ramen worm virus.

Like FreeBSD and NetBSD, OpenBSD also has many application software support, which includes a number of free software packages (www.openbsd.org/ports.html) for custom versions. Its software library is not as big as FreeBSD, but it contains most of the tools you want to install on Unix servers or workstation. OpenBSD x86 can also run programs created for FreeBSD, Linux, and Solaris. OpenBSD supports 10 Computer Architectures-more than FreeBSD, but not more than NetBSD. You can obtain the OpenBSD disc from OpenBSD itself or Cheap Bytes. However, you do not get the ISO ing file, because the development team is more willing to sell CD as support for their efforts. You can install the operating system through the network, but the user interface of the installer is not as beautiful as FreeBSD.

Among the three free BSD types, OpenBSD has the least development members and is the most difficult to learn for beginners of Unix. However, if you really need a secure network firewall or server, OpenBSD is the right choice.

NetBSD

NetBSD is also a free type of BSD, which is the most lightweight operating system based on BSD.
. Currently, it can run on 46 different hardware architectures (they are trying to adapt them to more architectures ), netBSD works well from the original 68K-based Macintosh or Amiga to the x86-64 Hammer structure that AMD has not published.

This portability makes NetBSD the best choice for Embedded Systems (invisible computers running on other devices. Because writing code from one platform to another is the easiest way to expose defects (otherwise it will not be noticed), but the code from NetBSD is rarely robust; openBSD (originally designed for NetBSD objects) and FreeBSD have used it for reference in the past. NetBSD is also the choice of many independent hardware operating systems, including the old Sun Workstation.

Like FreeBSD and OpenBSD, NetBSD has a huge application software library (less than FreeBSD and more than OpenBSD) and can run commercial programs compiled for Linux and other Unix versions. From Wasabi Systems (www.wasabisystems.com), Cheap Bytes, and other resources listed on the NetBSD Web site, we can get the NetBSD disc. You can download the iso cd ing file or install it through FTP.