FreeBSD other related systems and organizations

Free use and free is the characteristic of FreeBSD, which can be expressed in English by using the word "freedom". This means that the user is not only free to use the system, but also to adapt to the software needs of their own changes, and can affect the development of the software, and so on, which is the word of the deeper meaning.

People who support free software often think that each computer's users have their own specific needs, and there is no way to have a comprehensive, fit all requirements of the software system. So software developers and system administrators want to know what's inside the software so that the software can be customized and extended. But the commercial software only provides the software the binary code, the software internal operation completely closes up, the user loses the initiative to the software. In addition, any software products have a variety of bugs, commercial software users in the face of the software products of these problems, can only passively wait for the manufacturer's patch, the entire software system has to pause or take some risk to continue to use. Third, computer users do not rely entirely on commercial software, some software vendors intentionally in the software to add malicious code, or to join some kind of open door, to harm the user. Even if the backdoor or malicious code in these software is added under the banner of preventing piracy and providing more convenient functions, it may be accidentally triggered to the detriment of the user. In software that provides software source code, there is no such malicious behavior.

These issues are important for a common user or not, but for a larger system or a system that requires higher security, it can show importance. Advocates of free software believe that if a software provides source code, the user can modify or ask others to modify the software to suit their final needs, and to fix problems that are caused intentionally or unintentionally in the system. At present, open source code has been recognized by more and more computer users and vendors, who form an open source organization (open sources) to further promote this idea.

On the other hand, because there is no competition in some kinds of commercial software, the result of monopoly results in the expensive software, which makes the software not available to anyone in need. And the biggest value of software is being used, so many people think that software developers to allow others to use his software, should be benefited from the software services, rather than from the software itself profiteering. They think that computers should belong to the public and not be monopolized by certain companies. So these free software people want to develop a system for all users, making it possible for users to choose beyond the existing business software, without having to pay additional costs for commercial software. These people include FreeBSD developers, Linux developers, the GNU program developer, and many other free software developers, who develop software that makes for a colorful aspect of the computer industry, so that even without using any commercial software, The user is also able to do all the work on the computer with better performance.

GNU ' s not Unix

GNU is not UNIX, this recursive definition of the GNU program was proposed by Richard Stallman, who set up the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and proposed the GNU program to develop a completely free, Unix-like but more powerful operating system, In order to provide all computer users with a full-featured, good performance of the basic system. The GNU Hurd is the kernel of the GNU operating system, but it is still in beta until it is officially released. Many people use the Linux kernel and GNU application software to form the Gnu/linux system. The right image is the GNU logo.

The FSF has developed a lot of free software to do this, these software functions are the same as those used on UNIX, but because the GNU software is more capable of processing hardware, the GNU program makes the most of the computer's hardware capabilities and is more powerful than the same software in Unix. The software, under the protection of the GNU General Public License, allows anyone to use and propagate free (but must also provide the source), so it is heavily used in other Unix, and FreeBSD also provides a lot of GNU software.

Stallman created a word copyleft, because the common sense of copyright is used to restrict others to use and disseminate software without permission, while copyleft encourages anyone to use and disseminate software. Copyleft restricts the use and dissemination of GNU software, such as not providing source code for GNU software. Copyleft does not conflict with copyright, however, because the copyleft is directed at software communicators rather than end users. GNU software must use copyleft protection to restrict the GNU software itself for profit-making purposes, while other software can still use copyright protection against infringement. Stallman further uses the GNU General Public License to elaborate on the copyleft concept, requiring that the dissemination of GNU software must also propagate its source code. Because of the popularity of the GNU General Public License, many non-free Software foundation Free software also uses the GNU General Public License to protect its software from commercial companies for profit.

The GNU software license is fairly loose, and many companies use GNU software for commercial activities, but as long as the source code for GNU software is provided, there is no violation of the GNU software License.

FreeBSD itself is under the protection of the BSD license, the BSD license is slightly different from the GNU General Public License, and some restrictions are even more lenient. The GNU General Public License requires dissemination (including sales) of any conforming GNU software that should include source code, against the use of conservative GNU software sources, while BSD licensing allows the release of software in binary form, with no restrictions on the commercial use of the source code that is not intended to be disclosed.

Gnu/linux

FreeBSD is not the only free "UNIX" OS, nor is it the most popular Unix system, this honor belongs to Lin UX. This is mainly because Linux appeared two years earlier, when the BSD source code was also restricted by the at&t license, not freely available, and I Ntel 32-bit processor 386 of the popularity of the Internet has enabled many UNIX enthusiasts on the PC platform for free UNIX systems demand , Linux is born in a timely and. Recently, in the advocacy of business companies such as Netscape, Linux has been supported by a large number of commercial companies, virtually become a banner of the anti-Microsfot Alliance, the momentum is even greater.

Linux is a UNIX-compatible system written by the Finnish Linus Torvalds. Linus Torvalds is responsible for core development and maintenance, and other organizations and business companies are responsible for publishing the core and application of Linux, and since most programs are GNU software, Linux should be called the Gnu/linux more strictly. The current popular Linux version has Slackware 3.6, Debian 2.0,redhat 5.1, and so on.

Linux and FreeBSD are the same UNIX operating systems on the Intel platform, so there are many similarities. Almost all free software supports both Linux and FreeBSD, so they are similar in application. But Linux and FreeBSD also have quite a lot of difference, it can be said that each has its own characteristics.

Historically, FreeBSD inherits the code from BSD Unix, so the code is fairly mature and stable. Linux is an entirely new system, a stand-alone operating system developed in accordance with the POSIX specification, but also provides compatibility with BSD Unix or Unix System V. So Linux is completely unaffected by the 1992-year At&t lawsuit, and it turns out to be the most popular free operating system. Although the legal dispute has been resolved today, 4.4BSD Lite code is freely available, but FreeBSD users are still less than the users of Lin UX, and FreeBSD users are mostly network and computer professionals, with a low level of popularity.

For this historical reason, FreeBSD is a complete system, from the system core to the system to provide the program from the BSD Uni X, part of the GNU software is used to replace some of the old version of BSD Unix software. Linux is just the kernel of an operating system, and most of its applications are GNU software, and the GNU software is integrated with the Linux kernel by different organizations or individuals. So there are a number of different versions of Linux, and different versions of Linux use different combinations, so there's a big difference between the various Linux versions, and they can be expected to increase their differences with the development. And FreeBSD version is more neat and clear, only a FreeBSD version.