FreeBSD Nik Clayton

FreeBSD in a nutshell Open Source (free) Unix operating system Runs on IA32, IA64, AMD-Hammer, Alpha, Sparc, PPC Supports wide range of peripherals 1000’s of software packages available Many commercial users Thousands of developers around the world contributing to it Core component of many embedded systems

Why the demon? It’s a “daemon”, not a demon Greek “daemons” were neutral spirits that fetched and carried Geek “daemons” are programs that continuously run, doing useful things –Serving web pages –Shuttling back and forth –Handling print requests httpd, named, lpd, et al

FreeBSD is Unix To all intents and purposes, FreeBSD is Unix™ Multitasking Multiuser Emphasis on command line tools Network ready and remotely accessible Terse, cryptic, but very, very, powerful :-) “Unix is a nice place to live, but you wouldn’t want to visit” “Unix does not stop you doing stupid things, because that would also stop you doing clever things”

FreeBSD History 1969Work begins on Unix at AT&T Bell Labs 1971Unix, First Edition 1972“The number of Unix installations has grown to 10, with more expected”, Dennis Ritchie 1973Unix re-written in C 1975Unix, Sixth Edition. First version widely available outside AT&T 19761BSD, based on Sixth Edition. Bill Joy coins the term “Berkeley Software Distribution” 19793BSD. Unix gets Virtual Memory BSD. First deployment of TCP/IP in the world BSD NET/2

FreeBSD History BSD 0.1, based on 4.3/NET2 1993FreeBSD FreeBSD FreeBSD FreeBSD FreeBSD FreeBSD 5.0

Places you’ll find FreeBSD Powering websites –Yahoo –VA Linux / OSDN / Slashdot –Netcraft “Grunt work” –Disney –Manex VFX –NASA ISPs –UUNet, Pair, Demon, EasyNet, … Embedded Systems –IBM –Intel –Nokia –Checkpoint –Juniper Networks –Coyote Other operating systems –Mac OS X

FreeBSD is a complete OS FreeBSD consists of all the components needed for a complete operating system –kernel –compiler –include files –libraries –user-land utilities Kernel and user-land are kept synchronised, and can be built, from source, as a unit

Technology support Networking –IPv4, IPv6, IPSec, SSL Firewall –NAT –Filtering, Proxying, and Caching –VPN Infrastructure –DNS –DHCP (client and server) Telephony –PPP (dial-in, dial-out) –Fax (send/receive) Printing –Postscript –Network printing File sharing –NFS –SMB/CIFS –Appletalk –SMTP, POP3, IMAP, Webmail Web –HTTP

Benchmarks This space for rent

Third Party Packages 5,800+ applications available as binary packages Linux has similar number of applications available in a number of different binary formats (RPM, Deb, and others, depending on the distribution). Packages are built from the “ports tree” Ports tree is a mechanism that automates the process of downloading, checksumming, unpacking, patching, configuring, building, and installing new software

Ports Tree Growth

Development Organisation Two layers of FreeBSD organisation The committers, and everyone else Committers have write access to the source tree Everyone else submits patches or bug reports using FreeBSD's problem reporting system, and waits for a committer to commit the change Individuals who submit many patches (that work) are invited to become committers 9 committers form the elected "core team", for dispute resolution

Development Organisation Source code 9 core team Thousands of contributors 280+ committers

FreeBSD Licensing Model FreeBSD distributed under "2 clause" BSD license Copyright © [year] [name] All rights reserved Redistribution in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted, provided that the following conditions are met: 1.Redistribution of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions, and the disclaimer. 2.Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions, and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS", AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED LIMITED WARANTIES...

FreeBSD Licensing Model Don't claim that you wrote the code Don't blame us if the code doesn't work Apart from that, do anything you want with the code

The GPL and BSD Licenses The GPL mandates that source code be disclosed The BSD License allows source code changes to be kept secret GPL is often categorised as "Copyleft", as distinct from "Copyright" BSD License is "Copycentre". We actively encourage third parties to use the source code. Donating changes back is purely at the discretion of the party making the changes

Source Code Control The entire source code for FreeBSD is stored in a CVS repository The logs, and individual changes for each file can be traced back to The source tree can be checked out at any state, or corresponding to any release CDs are available taking the history back a further 25 years

Source Code Control Changes to the FreeBSD tree are available in a number of ways (CVS, CVSup, CTM ( ), Web) It is possible to maintain a local mirror of the complete CVS tree You can 'tag' a local copy of the tree as buildable, and then selectively include changes from FreeBSD

FreeBSD Release Model FreeBSD releases maintained using CVS branches Head of the tree (-current) will become FreeBSD 5.0 Last major release (4.0) was branched (-stable) Subsequent minor releases (4.1, 4.2, etc) consist of bug fixes backported from -current, and new features in -current that have been extensively tested Everyone has complete access to the source code at all times, so incremental releases are not a "Flag day"

FreeBSD Release Model March 2000, FreeBSD 4.0

FreeBSD Release Model FreeBSD-Current (will become 5.0) March 2000, FreeBSD 4.0 FreeBSD-Stable 4.2, November , September 2000 (crypto) 4.1, July , April , September 2001

Source Code Distribution FreeBSD Source Code –Available on CD and DVD –Can be downloaded from ftp.freebsd.org –Install using two floppy disks, or download ISO images and burn your own CDs Changes to the source code –Can be updated using CVS –Can be updated using CVSup (faster CVS) Can be browsed, with history, on the web, at

Linux Compatability Oracle Netscape RealPlayer Flash NetBackup Quake III Halflife servers Adobe Acrobat StarOffice VMWare DivX Opera FreeBSD is binary compatible with most Linux applications No speed penalty, and in many cases, Linux apps run faster

Sample Deployment

VPN Configuration

FreeBSD on the Desktop GNOME KDE StarOffice Netscape WordPerfect VMWare Acrobat GIMP CD burning MP3 ripping/playing Gnutella / Napster / Limewire Afterstep / Enlightenment / Sawfish / BlackBox / IceWM … A great server OS is a great desktop OS FreeBSD runs all the desktop apps you’re familiar with

Comparisons to Linux FreeBSD has a 30+ year code lineage FreeBSD developed as a complete unit A less restrictive license FreeBSD widely recognised as performing better, particularly under high load Cuter logo :-)

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