As I already discussed the differences between Unix and Linux operating systems. FreeBSD is an operating system based on Unix. Today in this article, we will discuss the differences between FreeBSD and Linux operating systems.
What is FreeBSD?
FreeBSD is a free and open-source operating system. It is descended from BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution) which was based on Research Unix originally developed at AT&T Bell Labs. It was first released in 1991.
Unlike Linux, it provides a complete system that includes kernel, device drivers, userland utilities, and documentation. It is mostly used on servers and desktops.
The key features of FreeBSD
- It contains a significant collection of server-related software in the base system and the ports collection
- Granular security features
- Easy system configuration and recovery
- FreeBSD has native support for ZFS
What is Linux?
Linux is an open-source, Unix-like operating system developed by Linux Torvalds in 1991. Generally, Linux operating system is packaged into distributions. A Linux distribution contains Linux kernel, desktop environments, and other tools some most popular distributions are Debian, Ubuntu, RHEL, Arch Linux, etc.
Linux OS is widely used in desktops, servers, mobile phones, mainframes, embedded devices, etc. Its popularity is rising day by day.
The key feature of Linux OS
- It is a multiuser, multitasking operating system
- Linux is lightweight os you can use it in live USB
- It is opensource that means you can modify its code to make your own version of Linux distribution
- It is portable you can run it on a wide range of hardware
- Highly secure
Differences between FreeBSD and Linux
The following table shows the differences between FreeBSD and Linux.
| Comparison | FreeBSD | Linux |
|---|---|---|
| Development | FreeBSD is developed by a central group of people | Linux is maintained by the Linux Foundation , the world wide developers are contributing to Linux Kernel |
| Licensing | It is licensed under its own license, which is the BSD license. | Linux is licensed under GNU GPL (General Public License) |
| Package management | Packages are managed using ports and pkg tool | Different Linux distribution uses different methods of package management |
| Performance | The performance of FreeBSD is excellent | The performance of Linux vary from distribution to distribution. Usually it has good performance |
| Command Line Interface | FreeBSD uses tcsh as the default root shell, and the Bourne shell-compatible or sh as the default user shell | The default interface is BASH (Bourne Again Shell) some of them are using c shell as default |
| Graphical User Interface | By default FreeBSD doesn't include a GUI desktop but you can download and install it | Many Linux distributions comes with default GUI. GNOME, KDE, Xfce are mostly used desktop environments in Linux |
| Usage | Generally used on servers and desktops | It is used on desktops, servers, Mainframes, mobile phone, etc |
| ZFS support | It has built in support for ZFS filesystem | Linux does not come with direct support for ZFS although you can still use it via third-party modules |
Conclusion
I hope now you understand the differences between FreeBSD and Linux. Now if you have a query then write us in the comments below.
