Someone reviewed v on Jul 5, 2022

Pros: 555

Cons: 555

Bottom Line: 555

debonair reviewed v12.0 on Dec 13, 2018

Pros: stable
stable
stable
ZFS
secure

Cons: port system needs a major overhaul. something more modern like homebrew for macos

Bottom Line: awesome for NAS server

HummingBird reviewed v9.2 on Oct 11, 2013

Great server.

Aegis69 reviewed v9.2 on Oct 10, 2013

Great server, but if you are looking for desktop linux look at Elementary OS or Deepin Linux.

AlanS2001 reviewed v8.0 RC2 on Oct 28, 2009

Vista a good desktop OS, yeah good one. Haven't used Windows 7 yet, but if it sucks anything like Vista then it will be worth avoiding.

smarterthanyou reviewed v8.0 RC2 on Oct 27, 2009

This is an excellent server operating system, but one of the worst desktop operating systems ever created. FreeBSD needs to stop trying to be everything for everyone and focus solely on being a server operating system since that is the only thing it is good at. Mac OS X is the only decent desktop Unix OS and even that is not a very good one compared to Windows 7 and Vista.

AutoBot reviewed v8.0 Beta 4 on Sep 9, 2009

@ Phat Esther

If you don't know what this is or what its for don't give FreeBSD a bad review, it is for advanced computer users wanting something stable, easy to maintain (once setup), something free, and most important to some is that its not Windows. 5 to undo your 1.

Dark_Diver reviewed v8.0 Beta 3 on Aug 24, 2009

Sweet wor[l]d - "Unix". Real. Genuine. Lives on my comps from 2.2.4.

Phat Esther reviewed v8.0 Beta 2 on Jul 18, 2009

Only boot menu, no install, no help, no disk identify only ad18 ad20 ad 2 ad4 or what no info which disk how free space, where to install, its only game for children in the sand, not an modern operating system. What language is it dos cp\m or holecard system. Perhaps freebsd 138.42 beta36 include setup GUI. Running any program on this fantastic never installed OS? Working on PC? hahahahaha

debonair reviewed v7.2 on May 8, 2009

my server OS of choice for many years. My only gripe is that zfs hasn't been fully integrated in the bootloader yet which prevents anyone to using it on the boot partition (root can be done, not boot).

adamlau reviewed v7.1 RC2 on Dec 29, 2008

Been off and on with FreeBSD since 4.x, easy to install, responsive when running, tuneable, slick port management, kernel compilation is not a chore as it is with a number of Linux distros. But lose two full points from five for not supporting a number of my newer hardware platforms as driver and hardware detection support is spotty. Laptops are hit and miss. I want to move away from Xubuntu into my BSD comfort zone, but until hardware support is improved, I'll have to wait until 8.x stabilizes before the transition. Hopefully.

zridling reviewed v7.1 RC2 on Dec 26, 2008

If you're not using the extremely friendly Linux distros like Fedora or openSUSE, then you owe it to yourself to load FreeBSD. You get the same look (KDE for me) and tools in a total package that is stunning in this version. Hardware support continues to grow.
______________
The only thing I added was the Bash shell. To do that: pkg_add -r bash or install from the ports. Then run chsh which will give you a vi window, change the "Shell: /usr/bin/csh" to "Shell: /usr/local/bin/bash".

ssb reviewed v7.1 Beta 2 on Oct 14, 2008

Not an alternative, not simply a Unix-like, not another distribution, not some kernel plus GNU, but the real thing. The best OS for *NIX perfectionists.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

zridling reviewed v7.1 Beta on Sep 12, 2008

This along with PC-BSD is just freakin' fabulous. Nearly impossible to screw up, FreeBSD makes everything easy, starting with a lightning-fast installation.

Ian C. reviewed v7.1 Beta on Sep 12, 2008

@ frater_baphomet93:
Sounds like maybe you've only ever used Linux distributions with a GUI installer. FreeBSD is as fast and easy an install as you'll find. I guess you didn't see the boot only ISO that weighs in at 36518 KB. Boot off of that and the install can be done completely from the web. See section 2.8, Choosing Your Installation Media, in the handbook. Or just complete the install with a minimal set of packages and add more later.

pkg_add -r ....
Will download and install the package and all its dependencies. You can search on freshports.org if you haven't installed the ports collection for local searching.

eaves reviewed v7.1 Beta on Sep 11, 2008

frater_baphomet93 - FreeBSD can boot and install from a single CD, I have done it several times over the past few years. Your criticisms would be more believable if there were at least a grain of truth in them.

FreeBSD has been an extremely reliable operating system in my experience. I have installed and run it on hardware ranging from 233MHz CPU with 64MB of memory up to a 3.0GHz CPU with 1GB of memory.

It just runs. and runs. and runs. and runs.

godofthunder reviewed v7.1 Beta on Sep 11, 2008

@>>>> frater_baphomet93

Strewth mate, I'm from Australia and i got my granny from the bush to install it on her pc without a problem.

PC-BSD is awesome also. A MUST TRY.

http://www.pcbsd.org/

Banquo reviewed v7.1 Beta on Sep 10, 2008

Great OS as always, getting better all the time.

frater_baphomet93, that post was so idiotic it made my head hurt. Thanks a lot, now I have to find some aspirin. Stick with Windows, it's obvious BSD is not meant for you.

ssb reviewed v7.1 Beta on Sep 10, 2008

Simply outstanding!
FreeBSD, one of the best operating systems, if not the best, comes and gives lessons on how a serious OS is made.

frater_baphomet93 reviewed v7.0 on May 15, 2008

@nd Review: I tried for 2 weeks to install this OS on one old intel 1.5 pentium 4 PC and now a new 6 giga AMD PC and am disguested. Why can't anyone just download a DVD version of this OS????????????? Come on!?! swapping between 3 CD's for hours to get the packages you need. This is worse than Bill Gates!! I will not attempt another try at this abortion till they but this in DVD format.

1st review 2 weeks earlier:
I've been using & testing linux systems for over 10 years and find it hard to believe that we are still forced to use either floppy disk and or Dos to boot up & install a "modern" OS systems such as this! Give me a break! You can do better than this. Even GodD*mn Windows systems can boot & be installed with only a single CDrom. This gives me much doubt in these alternative OS systems. This why so few new people try such other OS systems.

swenateb reviewed v7.0 on Feb 28, 2008

Torrent downloading is available at the FreeBSD website and is probably a better downloading method. Thumbs up to the release team.

Ian C. reviewed v7.0 on Feb 27, 2008

Another major feature that ssb and zridling didn't mention, is it's support for natively running unmodified Linux binaries (as well as other *nix clone binaries). The binary compatibility has been vastly improved in v7, and runs most Linux binaries faster than Linux does. I can vouch for this with the 6 years I've been running Linux HLDS on it.

Ooooh, and check out the first bullet on the generic changelog:

"Dramatic improvements in performance and SMP scalability shown by various database and other benchmarks, in some cases showing peak performance improvements as high as 350% over FreeBSD 6.X under normal loads and 1500% at high loads. When compared with the best performing Linux kernel (2.6.22 or 2.6.24) performance is 15% better."

ssb reviewed v7.0 on Feb 27, 2008

FreeBSD 7 is an example of what engineering perfection really means!

Maybe not for "weak heart" newbees, FreeBSD 7 is the best OS for any serious server and desktop use.

Get it, use it, love it and forget everything you know about *nix clones. It's the real thing, not just another gnu/linux distribution.

zridling reviewed v7.0 on Feb 27, 2008

Be very careful of downloading and installing FreeBSD. Once you do, you'll likely be hooked for a long, long time. Most of GNU/Linux software works on BSD, too, including OpenOffice.

Among the many improvements include: performance and SMP scalability shown by various database and other benchmarks; the ULE scheduler is vastly improved, providing improved performance and interactive response; experimental support for Sun's ZFS filesystem; gjournal can be used to set up journaled filesystems, gvirstor can be used as a virtualized storage provider.

Ian C. reviewed v7.0 RC1 on Jan 1, 2008

Oh, it's not a sysinstall update or even a replacement (sysinstall hasn't changed since 6.x as far as I can tell). finstall is a GUI installer for FreeBSD live CDs. And it's not gonna go mainstream till after 7.0 release. Aside from that, still a ton of nice improvements over the 6.x version.

christ999 reviewed v7.0 RC1 on Dec 28, 2007

good-a better installation method is sth that developers must work

Ian C. reviewed v7.0 Beta 3 on Nov 20, 2007

Hmm... where are all the trolls/noobs that usually rate it a 1 cause it doesn't have a GUI? Although maybe the new sysinstall has helped with that, haven't tried it yet.

zridling reviewed v7.0 Beta 2 on Nov 5, 2007

Loaded fully — with a HD reformat — in only 12 minutes. Holy crapzilla. As others note, FreeBSD is highly stable and very easy to use. After spending a full week with Beta 1, I can't say a bad word about it.

Latz ! reviewed v7.0 Beta 1 on Oct 23, 2007

I've been learning to install and use this OS for the last few weeks on an old second hand computer and when 7.0 final comes out I hope to make it my primary OS. Installing the minimal FreeBSD base, compiling your own kernel and adding only what you want onto it gives you the cleanest most stable OS you can get. Of course driver support is still a bit lacking but it's getting better all the time.

godofthunder reviewed v6.2 on Oct 18, 2007

If I could give it a 10 id give it a 10.

BSD derivatives are regarded as the most stable OS's in the world! Did you get that?

Linux is a bunch of components bolted together, kinda like a salad, not very pretty.

I have marveled at seeing users throw away their linux distrubutions, slide into FREEBSD, desktopBSD, pc-BSD etc.. and do the exact same things as they did before but with even more power, and stability.

The only thing that comes close is the unix/beos hybrid that is MAC OSX. But lets not bother with that debate.

ssb reviewed v6.2 on Jan 16, 2007

What eyecandy? FreeBSD is a professional operating system, not a desktop toy for eyecandy fan kids.
Besides that, a FreeBSD user can install any application he likes, including those nice-looking (and useless imho) monsters like KDE or GNOME.

And please remember, FreeBSD is NOT Linux. It is a professional rock solid OS, not just a "kernel + gnu stuff" distribution.

Highly Recommended!

brusco reviewed v6.2 on Jan 16, 2007

@smarterthanyou

If you judge an operating system purely on its "eye candy" then by all means use something else. You can however change the look and feel of KDE using hundreds of free themes, icon sets etc at http://www.kde-look.org/ if thats your thing.

There are those however that need the stability of BSD when doing their work (I do Medical Research, Windows annoyances/flakyness is not an option). I am dual booting this with Vista Ultimate RTM and I have to say, the partitions given over to vista looks to be wasted space. FreeBSD is rock solid and dependable, as all operating systems SHOULD be.

Ian C. reviewed v6.2 on Jan 16, 2007

Since when does eye candy account for 100% of the desktop/workstation computers functionality?

BSD > Windows > Linux > MacOS

smarterthanyou reviewed v6.2 on Jan 16, 2007

What's really ridiculous is that the only way to get Unix with eye candy that even begins to come close to Windows Vista is to buy a whole new computer from Apple. KDE and Gnome don't even begin to come close to Vista.

FreeBSD is clearly labeled as a one size fits all OS for servers, workstations AND desktops. Despite this, it falls far short for any use except as a server.

damienjp reviewed v6.2 RC2 on Jan 6, 2007

This is one of the VERY BEST !! Operating System ever !!! I switched my servers from windows 2003 enterprise edition and don't regret one bit. I now run FreeBSD 6.1 on all my servers and FreeBSD 6.2 on my desktop and love it !! Never shall i pay for a crappy OS that crashes more then it works.

And for those that are crying about not having a gui, i have a better looking desktop then i ever had with windows xp pro using FreeBSD 6.2 with Gnome2.16.

kingclyde reviewed v6.2 RC2 on Dec 28, 2006

smarterthanyou, I use this as a file and print server. The need of eye candy is not neccesary for the functions that this os is written for. If you want eye candy do windows. You can also download KDE for BSD. That way you get a gui. Other than that atick with windows for eye candy and wizards. Remember, wizards are for people who can't use command line functions. In any UNIX environment you need to use and know them. Excellant OS

Banquo reviewed v6.2 RC2 on Dec 28, 2006

smarterthanyou, this is for servers and UNIX workstations. It's not supposed to have eye candy and "wizards".

Klaus_1250 reviewed v6.2 RC2 on Dec 28, 2006

@smarterthanyou: PC-BSD (a FreeBSD Desktop distribution) is what you are looking for. You can't compare FreeBSD with Windows or a Linux distro. Most people running it don't want eye-candy and do not need easy setup wizards. They want a powerful, stable OS for their server. And that is exactly what FreeBSD 6 is.

smarterthanyou reviewed v6.2 RC1 on Nov 21, 2006

I rate this a 3 because it is a very stable and secure OS. Unfortunately, FreeBSD's lack of eye candy and nice looking, easy to use wizards will doom this OS. As powerful as most computers are today, who wouldn't want lots of fancy eye candy?

constust reviewed v6.2 RC1 on Nov 20, 2006

Just to annoy the fanboys...

If I could rate it a 0 I would. :p

ssb reviewed v6.2 Beta 3 on Nov 2, 2006

FreeBSD is the best *nix operating system. Probably not for people like Ameba#1 who prefer wizards, graphic installers and the rest eye candy.
FreeBSD is not Linux but a pro-class server OS built for pros, not kids!

Highly recommended!

Ameba#1 reviewed v6.2 Beta 3 on Nov 1, 2006

Worst OS ever made. Don´t waste your time trying it. Better wait for Win/Vista or openSUSE 10.2.

Don Juan reviewed v6.2 Beta 2 on Oct 18, 2006

FreeBSD > Windows > Linux > MacOS

Yeah... as much as I hate to admit it, windows is actually more useful that linux.

ssb reviewed v6.2 Beta 1 on Sep 22, 2006

The most reliable operating system ever made!

Ian C. reviewed v6.2 Beta 1 on Sep 22, 2006

Top notch OS. Not for noobs like Michael37.

omegadraconis reviewed v6.2 Beta 1 on Sep 21, 2006

I have been using freebsd since version 4 came out and I have to say it is one of the best server os's out there. It is also making great strives in the personal desktop market with either FreeSBIE (http://www.freesbie.org/), a freebsd bootable(and installable) live cd that comes with all the desktop bells and whistles or PC-BSD (http://www.pcbsd.org/) that is freebsd based and desktop ready. and for our friend Michael37 it has a graphical install ;)

Don Juan reviewed v6.1 on May 9, 2006

Probably gonna switch over to this as my main desktop OS since this version supports Xen and I can run linux simultaneously for playing games. No dual booting required.

Banquo reviewed v6.1 on May 8, 2006

Michael37, you're an idiot. Just because you don't know what you are doing doesn't mean it should get a bad rating; this is a SERVER OS. It DOES NOT NEED a graphical installer or a GUI. If you had a clue as to what you were doing you'd know that you could install KDE, Gnome or whatever you wanted.

ssb reviewed v6.1 RC2 on May 5, 2006

@Michael37...
Sorry but you say that FreeBSD sucks because "you" are not able to install it?
Or because a "server-OS" has not graphical installer with wizards and the rest eyecandy ?

If so, yes you're absolutely right, this OS isn't for you (...)

BTW FreeBSD comes with both Gnome and KDE in system CD, available as installer's options.

Michael37 reviewed v6.1 RC2 on May 4, 2006

Most people holler " yeah yeah I LOVE this FreeBSD OS system" But I have tryed installing it.. and theres not GUI.. So thats why Linux is running off and staying ahead of this FreeBSD and so is windows... once you get this OS install.. and you log in.. there is still NO! deskTop. I know it's not what I think that makes the world go around.. But I think this FreeBSD SUCK! people use something thats going to help you, and you don't haft to stand there fighting with it just to get it up and doing what you need.

ssb reviewed v6.1 RC1 on Apr 14, 2006

The only real OS !

azmantek reviewed v6.1 Beta 1 on Feb 16, 2006

FreeBSD: words can't explain how much love I have for you :).

crou reviewed v6.0 on Nov 9, 2005

Wow. I upgraded my servers from 5.4 to 6 and I'm more than happy!

If you don't know Freebsd, give it a try and take some time trying the Ports system. It's the best way (flexible, fast, easy) to manage software installed on the system. Gentoo linux was inspired by that system but don't perform as well, more complicated than the freebsd port system.

g400 reviewed v6.0 on Nov 5, 2005

i used freebsd in several environments now and i can tell you it is a really professional system giving you everything you expect from a unix. i wouldn't say it's a perfect desktop os but that's not their aim. if you need a stable, performant and clean unix use it, for desktop use some desktop os; i can't stand the "imposed" feel of x-guis

Don Juan reviewed v6.0 on Nov 4, 2005

Holy hell it is FAST!!!

improvelence reviewed v6.0 on Nov 4, 2005

I have always had a great deal of respect for FreeBSD. Sure, it can be a pain in the a** to set up and configure, but once you do...it's rock solid. If you want to quickly set up and run a server, use linux...if you want to run a server with some balls, there is no other alternative. Respect.

Its not bad for a basic desktop system either, sucks for gaming though (IMHO)

Oh..and KDE has a MUCH better interface than windows, I use both on a regular basis...so I am not some loser thats on here flaming M$ or anything. No one can deny that windows is king when it comes to useability, and if you do you are lying to yourself. But as a server, I have never been happy with what windows has to offer.

ssb reviewed v6.0 on Nov 4, 2005

FreeBSD is simply the best server OS ever used.

Inray reviewed v6.0 Beta 5 on Sep 26, 2005

BeerStud,
FreeBSD was never targeted client-desktop market. In fact all *nix/BSD OSes are pure server systems even though many users use them as Windows alternative. However, FreeBSD works just fine with both KDE and Gnome. BTW I agree with you that KDE (and Gnome) is far from complete compared to Win or MacOSX desktop. Maybe in the future...

>> Plug & Play is not well implemented in this OS
Although PNP was indended for Windows OS only, it is well documented and works just fine in FreeBSD. You should blame hardware manufacturers for limited support in both Linux and BSD OS.

>> Support is limited to forums
Sorry but that's not true. There are hundreds of BSD consaltunts in all countries. FreeBSD also has supporting mailing lists, forums, user-groups etc.

I really respect your opinion, but do you rate FreeBSD with three just because it is a server OS and not a colourful Windows alternative? Unless off course you are not happy using it as server...

Romas reviewed v6.0 Beta 5 on Sep 25, 2005

>KDE is a usable alternative to the Windows GUI, but it is still quite primitive.

What are you talking about? Have you ever seen KDE? Windows GUI is still dreaming about all the features which KDE has.

BeerStud reviewed v6.0 Beta 4 on Sep 23, 2005

FreeBSD is a great OS for hosting a mail server, LAN, etc., but for the average home user it is a poor choice. Just the simple act of setting up a printer would be beyond the abilities of the average home user. KDE is a usable alternative to the Windows GUI, but it is still quite primitive.

I use FreeBSD 5.4 for my business as a mail server, but using it as a full time workstation is out of the question. Plug & Play is not well implemented in this OS. Support is limited to forums. They is no telephone or email support from the developers of the system. Finding drivers for hardware can be a hit and miss situation,

I would only recommend this OS for commercial use, or those with an advanced background in computer OS's.

Inray reviewed v6.0 Beta 4 on Sep 9, 2005

It's coming !

FreeBSD is absolutely the best OS for server use. Most people think that all *nix-like systems are the same, this is not true. FreeBSD is a full blown OS not just a kernel and the usual GNU utils collection.

I have to disagree with a previous reviewer who said that FreeBSD is not for desktop users. FreeBSD includes Xorg, Gnome and KDE and can run any available desktop application. If user knows how to configure X and desktop I see no problem using FreeBSD as a desktop OS. In fact its even faster and more stable than most Linux.

Finally we should not forget that MacOSX is based on FreeBSD, many Microsoft tech stuff like sockets are also based on FreeBSD technology and the fact that many US military projects rely on FreeBSD code.

Banquo reviewed v6.0 Beta 3 on Aug 25, 2005

Great for servers, but not much use to desktop users.

ModderXManiac reviewed v6.0 Beta 3 on Aug 25, 2005

I use this as a webserver and router at lan partys I host. This os is flawless; security and stability at its best.

*now downloading*

forgie reviewed v6.0 Beta 1 on Jul 15, 2005

wish they'd start releasing dvd images also instead of just 2 cd iso's.

poedgirl reviewed v5.4 RC3 on Apr 26, 2005

An excellent operating system to use as a server, I currently use it as my web server and have not had any troubles with it.

Inray reviewed v5.3 on Nov 8, 2004

It's here !!!
The latest release of most complete and secure OS is on the way to my file and web server.

Maxwolf reviewed v5.3 RC2 on Nov 2, 2004

That's funny, even BSD users don't know what they are using or what it stands for...awesome, now go flame Windows users! [Puts away his crunk stick]

Inray reviewed v5.3 RC2 on Nov 1, 2004

It's coming !!!
The best OS got better.

AlanS2001 reviewed v5.3 Beta 7 on Oct 14, 2004

Banquo, being derived from Unix doesn't automatically make it Unix. http://www.opengroup.org...ucts/cert/certprods.htm

deadmonkey reviewed v5.3 Beta 7 on Oct 12, 2004

Actually BSD stands for Berkeley Software Distribution (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/...y_Software_Distribution )

Banquo reviewed v5.3 Beta 6 on Sep 28, 2004

Uh..dude..BSD is derived from Berkeley UNIX (the other branch being owned by AT&T). BSD stands for Berkeley Systems Distribution. While it has come a long way since then it IS based on UNIX.

thoffmeyer reviewed v5.3 Beta 4 on Sep 13, 2004

Uh.. dude.. FreeBSD isnt linux nor unix.. its BSD..

vhane reviewed v5.3 Beta 3 on Sep 6, 2004

If you invest some time into learning it, you'll discover a unix system that is fast, reliable, stable, versatile, secure and sanely structured.

It's also one of the easiest unices to use day-to-day. It is not easy as in point-and-click easy. It is easy in the sense that installing and updating software is a breeze. You can even jump versions from FreeBSD 5.2.1 to the 5.3 Beta by issuing a few commands. It is an easy and reliable system to admin.

Definitely one of the gems in the world of Operating Systems.

Canuckistani reviewed v5.3 Beta 1 on Aug 24, 2004

Oh, for goodness sakes! Mac OS X IS BSD:
http://encyclopedia.thef...ionary.com/Darwin%20BSD

shantanu reviewed v5.2.1 RC2 on Feb 15, 2004

BTW...the review about this OS is that it rocks !!! (Forgot that in the previous review :) )

geminiz reviewed v5.2.1 RC1 on Feb 1, 2004

OS-X is the best os?
In my opinion Mac is the one of the crappiest and overrated system for newbies who somehow finds non-mac OS so "hard to use".
man kids today are just so shallow...

WndrBr3d reviewed v5.2 on Jan 12, 2004

Tidus41: Was that a statement about your technical skill?

All in all, Best Server OS money can buy.... because it's free! We run a fairly small server farm here at my company (8 Win2k, 8 FreeBSD) and the FreeBSD machines run amazingly stable. Couldn't be happier with some of the features they've added in 5.2

Bueno.

ssb reviewed v5.2 RC2 on Dec 24, 2003

Best OS ever. You can call it "OS generator" as most today's operating system borrow parts of code and ideas from this one. It's not a Linux or something like that. FreeBSD is the "real thing" not just an opensource experiment.
And btw, if you cannot use a real OS don't rate with 1, just learn it. Computing isn't just a mouse and MS nice looking crap.

Tidus41 reviewed v5.2 RC2 on Dec 23, 2003

OS X > Windows > FreeBSD

i dl this, and i cant even get it to work

nemrtvy reviewed v5.2 RC1 on Dec 12, 2003

Best OS ever. Nothing more :)

eL MaesTro reviewed v5.1 on Jun 9, 2003

Red Hat take note . . .

freedomfighter reviewed v5.1 RC1 on Jun 5, 2003

What can u say... Microsoft take note, this program is the Dogs hairy bits, very nice indeed:)

freedomfighter reviewed v4.8 on Apr 5, 2003

Its the one, the dogs twitcher, unsurpassed reliability, not flawed, not a Red hqat Rip off, .. it just is THEONE!
nough said

zeio reviewed v4.8 on Apr 4, 2003

This OS has 99.9 % of everything available in RedHat 9; and more -just use ports. Once you see ports in action, you'll wonder why things aren't done like FreeBSD more often.

You can also set every port to compile with massive CPU optimizations. Only Gentoo offers that.

And if you program, porting your code from FreeBSD is a snap.

This OS is clean, well documented, stable and coherent. If you want a workstation, try:
/usr/ports/misc/instant-workstation/ ; make install
bash cdrecord dos2unix Emacs fetchmail gsgrip gimp gv gpg ispell tkde mkisofs mount_smbfs mutt mozilla xtset xmms xv

It gets the tarballs and compiles them for you, or it can get the precompiled packages, and install them.

This is what FreeBSD gives you; freedom from RPM's provided by vendors in low optimization forms, freedom to use free software AS THE AUTHOR intended, not a bas****ized version like Redhat and other give out, true UNIX (it is said that Linux is for those who hate Microsoft, BSD is for those who love unix).

You know, anti-freebsd mentality is probably coming from someone who "hates" Debian, Gentoo and slack because you have to lift a finger.

If you ever developed software you'll realize FreeBSD is very clean.

Also note, two huge pieces of network iron run FreeBSD as thier embedded OS, Juniper (makes bigger than 15000 series Cisco stuff such as the M160) and F5 BigIP.

FreeBSD also has livelock management in the kernel and provides excellent networking performance; especially with polling.

FreeBSD is a joy to use, and is intended for those who have something to do with the computer.

FreeBSD has a place, and its only going to get better and more adopted.

Metshrine reviewed v4.8 on Apr 4, 2003

Linux has so much more to offer, I cant stand freebsd. Yes its nice for servers, but if you arent running a server I wouldnt waste my time with this.

spikeymikey reviewed v4.8 RC2 on Mar 18, 2003

This is the cream of the crop when it comes to non-commercial operating systems. It is very well thought out, mature (not just a bunch of spaghetti code), and easy enough for newbies to use! I love the ports system! It is so much better than dealing with package dependency hell. This is *THE* operating system to keep an eye on. It is already the o/s for most of the corporate servers and it is very quickly earning a great reputation for desktop users. I encourage you to buy a CD and help the project develop faster so when Microsoft releases Longhorn and shoves digital rights management and spyware up your ass, you have a top-notch o/s to switch to!

debonair reviewed v4.8 RC2 on Mar 18, 2003

the OS of UNIX:s. So much easier to manage than any other UNIX. Linux.. you have a lot to learn, and I think Gentoo started learning already. The thing with FreeBSD is it's less interdependency between installed software allowing you to upgrade a package without actually have to upgrade every other single package on the whole machine (bad debian, bad redhat, etc). Keep userland and kernel/OS seperate!!

xocet, we'd all be better off if you didn't give a poor review for the OS without even testing it just because the link to download didn't work for you. Nice job... I give you 1/5.

infinitejones reviewed v4.8 RC1 on Mar 3, 2003

man this software really sucks it took me three days to download and i double clicked on the icon on my desktop and i got this message in windows like "does not recognise file extension"

JOKING JOKING JOKING FreeBSD is my summer, my winter, my springtime and my autumn. It's my night and my day. I love it and it loves me. Long live FreeBSD.

improvelence reviewed v5.0-RELEASE on Jan 19, 2003

FreeBSD is great, definately my choice in a non-windows world (even though i use windows mostly because of compatability issues). Had a little trouble with sound because i have an onboard card and an added pci card but thats probably because im an idiot, other than that this system runs flawlesly and clocks great speeds on my old pentium3 450. Xfree86 is slow but Xfree86 is always slow i prefer unix over linux especially since freebsd comes with linux binary support UNIX is the O.G. of operating systems (why do you think macs switched to it, knowing they were dying a painfull death they made a smart choice)

ssb reviewed v5.0 RC3 on Jan 14, 2003

What can we say about FreeBSD ?
THE operating system, THE Unix, THE BEST

zeio reviewed v5.0 RC3 on Jan 13, 2003

This OS is God. While RedHat is removing support for Alpha and SPARC, focusing the free OS more and more on Desktop and making people pay into the scam of the century, RedHat "Advanced (lol) Server" for over $1000, FreeBSD is adding stable support for more platforms.. Almost stable on Power PC, it officially will support SPARC64, Alpha, x86, IA64. It's coherent, well documented, "thin," bloody fast, BSD licensed so call it your own. You see that well written code goes across architectures; the FreeBSD discipline is allowing them to easily stay stable on several platforms. I have run several tests that suggest that even FreeBSD 4.X is 'better' than Linux at various things, let alone 5.0. The VM subsystem is superior. Most big companies [provide virtual servers with FreeBSD, such as Verio. The biggest irony of all is how small the FreeBSD community is compared to legions of hackers and companies trying to improve Linux. Yet why is Linux fragmented so horribly? It seems to me that for every 10 Linux hackers there is 1 FreeBSD hacker and he gets more than 10 times the word done because the final products are so different. You will understand why this is the only free and open commercial grade OS there is. You will know what you are missing when you finally get a coherent UNIX. Linux is for Microsoft haters, FreeBSD is for UNIX lovers. GCC, the C library and the kernel are all a matched set, not of this he said she said GNU-of-the-day distribution crap or fake compilers from RedHat and frozen broken CVS snapshots of the C library [RedHat again, with a fake C-lib on RH8]. FreeBSD is used by Juniper as the core OS, with network processors instead of 'real' network cards. It's beautiful. A full version of BSD, relabeled JuneOS, with an IOS-like CLI for those who need it and superior design and interfaces. The UFS2 filesystem is also incredible. I really *really* like XFS for Linux [and wish they would stop wasting time with the rude and unappreciative maintainers and port it to FreeBSD], but the Linux kernel maintainers are losers and wont merge it in but have a myriad of vastly inferior filesystems merged into Linux [ext3 fake journaling, Reiser fsck for fun FS, JFS which is robust but slow]. UFS2 addresses this problem. A fast, robust logging filesystem that is stable and in the kernel. Anyways, don’t wait for Linux kernel 2.6 or any of the flavors of Linux distributors to come out with something stable, well documented, coherent with UNIX as a standard and each other. Don’t be fooled, LSB is a standards base, but you don’t get decades of discipline, you get maybe a years worth of un-actualized planning.
FreeBSD 5.0 is here. This project needs a better installer, and some 'for workstation use' cleanups (want to see FreeBSD + mach kernel + UI cleanups , check out OS X, although, I severely deprecate OS X because they don’t use the FBSD kernel and they have horrible hardware, the Motorola PPC), and probably a better package system, although, there are lots of people who like PKG and PORTS much, much better than RPM. The blaring omission and fatal mistake by Sun is it is difficult to get a recent JRE/JDK to run natively [1.1, 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4 are available as ports] and Sun does not provide one [they are apparently planning one]. People have lots of luck though using the Linux binary emulator, FreeBSD can run everything Linux does in binary form and it's easier to port to.
The final reason to develop for FreeBSD is this: Linux has /usr/include/linux. That in and of itself is a reason not to start there.
World, wake up, and see a more beautiful future, one which was paved with the golden road made of FreeBSD.

tvadakia reviewed v5.0 RC2 on Dec 23, 2002

Only the best. 5.0 includes support that the 4.x branch leaves out, including extensive threading capabilities (for SMP and true JAVA!! support.) That's one of many improvements. If you're looking for a secure web/ftp/telnet/mail/firewall/etc/etc/etc server, look NO further. Secure is FreeBSDs middle name. (Ok, ok, there's always OpenBSD ;-) but I'm talking favorites here.)

ssb reviewed v5.0 RC2 on Dec 23, 2002

What can i say ? FreeBSD is just the best "Unix" today
With advanced security and stability, it's the industry standard for a unix OS. Even Microsoft uses it for Hotmail servers. I'll not compare it with Linux as Linux is just a toy compared with BSD.

justin reviewed v4.0 on Mar 22, 2000

It works fine...i just downloaded it.

melteye reviewed v4.0 on Mar 21, 2000

if you weren't an idiot you would see the product name is "freebsd" and go to www.freebsd.com. just think about it for a second, i beleive solving this yourself would save you time from posting this, and screw up the ratings, since your rating the product without downloading it. but, its no problem. www.freebsd.com

xocet reviewed v4.0 on Mar 21, 2000

Im sure this is a great o/s except I get permision denied
when I try to download the ISO......