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<p>As the BSD projects (including DragonFlyBSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD) have grown in size,
a number of persistent myths have grown up around them. Some of these are
perpetuated by well meaning but misguided individuals, others by people
pursuing their own agendas.</p>
<p>This page aims to dispel those myths while remaining as dispassionate
as possible.</p>
<blockquote><b>Note:</b> Throughout this page, ``*BSD'' refers to all
of the BSD Projects. Where a myth or response is specific to a
particular project it is indicated as such.</blockquote>
<blockquote>If you are aware of an omission or error on this page, please
let the <a href="mailto:doc@freebsd.org">FreeBSD
documentation project mailing list</a> know.</blockquote>
<h2>Myths</h2>
<h2>Index</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="#closed-model">*BSD has a closed development model,
it's more ``Cathedral'' than ``Bazaar''</a></li>
<li><a href="#own-distro">You can't make your own distributions or
derivative works of *BSD</a></li>
<li><a href="#server">*BSD makes a great server, but a poor
desktop</a></li>
<li><a href="#old-codebase">The *BSD codebase is old, outdated, and
dying</a></li>
<li><a href="#bsd-war">The *BSD projects are at war with one
another, splinter groups form each week</a></li>
<li><a href="#clustering">You can't cluster *BSD systems (parallel
computing)</a></li>
<li><a href="#support">There's no commercial support for
*BSD</a></li>
<li><a href="#applications">There are no applications for
*BSD</a></li>
<li><a href="#beats">*BSD is better than (some other system)</a></li>
<li><a href="#beaten">(some other system) is better than *BSD</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Myth: <a name="closed-model">*BSD</a> has a closed development
model, it's more ``Cathedral'' than ``Bazaar''</h3>
<p>Eric Raymond wrote an influential paper, ``<a href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/">The
Cathedral and the Bazaar</a>'' in which the Linux development model
(and the model Eric used for <tt>fetchmail</tt>) is held up as an
example of how to do ``open'' development. By contrast, the model
employed by *BSD is often characterized as closed.</p>
<p>The implicit value judgment is that ``bazaar'' (open) is good, and
``cathedral'' (closed) is bad.</p>
<p>If anything, *BSD's development model is probably
<strong>more</strong> akin to the ``bazaar'' that Eric describes than
either Linux or <tt>fetchmail</tt>.</p>
<p>Consider the following;</p>
<ul>
<li><p><b>All the *BSD projects:</b> The current, bleeding edge source
code for FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD is available for anyone to download
from the Internet, 24 hours a day. You don't need to wait for
someone else to roll a release.</p>
<p><b>FreeBSD:</b> An installable snapshot of the current
progress is made weekly. These snapshots can be installed
exactly like an ordinary release, and do not require installation
over an existing system.</p>
<p><b>OpenBSD:</b> Installable snapshots are generated daily and if
Theo thinks they are good enough, he uploads them to the mirrors.</p>
<p>Contrast this with Linux, where new kernel distributions are
made available on an ad-hoc basis, and where the frequency of
each Linux distribution release is at the whim of the individual
vendor.</p>
<p>There's none of the Linux fanfare every time a new kernel is
released, simply because for most *BSD users it is an every day
event.</p></li>
<li><p>Anyone can submit patches, bug reports, documentation, and
other contributions. They can do this
by using a web based
interface.</p>
<p>Pointers to this system litter the documentation.</p></li>
<li><p>Not everyone can commit code changes to the *BSD code. You
need to be a <em>committer</em> first. Typically, people are offered
``commit privs'' after they have made a few well-thought out
submissions to the project using Bugzilla or similar.</p>
<p>This is identical to the Linux mechanism. Only one person is
(notionally) allowed to change the Kernel, Linus. But specific areas
(such as the networking code) are delegated to other people.</p>
<p><i>Aside: Nik (nik@FreeBSD.org) is a case in point. After making
several submissions to the FreeBSD Documentation Project and
web pages, he was offered ``commit privs'' so that he did not
have to keep bothering other committers to commit the changes. He
never had to ask for them, they were freely given.</i></p></li>
</ul>
<hr noshade="noshade" size="1"/>
<h3>Myth: <a name="own-distro">You</a> cannot make your own distributions
or derivative works of *BSD</h3>
<p>You can. You just need to say in the documentation and source
files where the code is derived from. Multiple derivative
projects exist:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://wiki.debian.org/Debian_GNU/kFreeBSD">Debian
GNU/kFreeBSD</a> is a port of the Debian GNU userland
tools to the &os; kernel. It takes advantage of the devfs(8)
implementation (versus three discordant Linux interfaces),
security features (like jails, ipfw, and pf), and ZFS, among
other things.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://www.desktopbsd.net/">DesktopBSD</a> is
another FreeBSD based operating system
customized for desktop usability.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://www.dragonflybsd.org/">DragonflyBSD</a>
started as a code fork from
FreeBSD 4.X, but it has since its own user community and
development goals.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://frenzy.org.ua/eng/">Frenzy</a> is
another live-CD distribution, but customized
for administering tasks. It contains software for hardware
tests, file system checks, security checks, network setup
and analysis.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Gentoo_FreeBSD">Gentoo/FreeBSD</a>
is an effort by the Gentoo Project to port their complete
administration facilities to take advantage of the reliable
FreeBSD kernel and userland. This project is purely
incomplete and experimental.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="&url.articles;/nanobsd/index.html">NanoBSD</a> is another
project to produce reduced versions
of FreeBSD to put it on a Compact Flash card or other mass
storage. It is also a part of the FreeBSD source tree, see
/usr/src/tools/tools/nanobsd.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.trueos.org">TrueOS</a> is a desktop
oriented FreeBSD derivative. It is
intended to be easy to install and well-supported by its
community.</p></li>
<li><p><a
href="https://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=picobsd">PicoBSD</a>
is a tailored distribution of FreeBSD that fits
on a floppy. It is great for turning diskless 386 PC into a
router or a network print server. It is a part of the FreeBSD
source tree, see /usr/src/release/picobsd.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://code.google.com/p/tinybsd/">TinyBSD</a> is
a set of tools made up of shell scripts designed to allow easy
development of Embedded Systems based on FreeBSD.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://www.trustedbsd.org/">TrustedBSD</a>
provides a set of trusted operating system
extensions to the FreeBSD operating system, targeting the
Common Criteria for Information Technology Security
Evaluation (CC). This project is still under development,
and much of the code is destined to make its way back into
the base FreeBSD operating system, but the development
takes place separately.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://www.pfsense.com">pfSense</a> is an open source
firewall derived from the m0n0wall firewall system with several
different goals and features, such as OpenBSD's Packet Filter (PF),
FreeBSD 6.1, ALTQ support for excellent packet queuing and
finally an integrated package management system for extending the
environment with new features.</p></li>
<li><p>The Whistle Interjet: A ``network appliance'' that acts as a
router, web server, mailhost (and other functionality), and can be
configured using a web browser. The underlying operating system is
FreeBSD, and Whistle have contributed many of their code
enhancements back to the FreeBSD project (while keeping enough of
them proprietary that they can stay in business).</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Similarly to DragonflyBSD, OpenBSD was not a standalone project,
it started as a spinoff from the NetBSD project, and has since evolved
its own distinctive approach.</p>
<hr noshade="noshade" size="1"/>
<h3>Myth: <a name="server">*BSD</a> makes a great server, but a poor
(&unix;) desktop</h3>
<p>*BSD makes a great server. It also makes a great desktop. Many of
the requirements for a server (responsiveness under load, stability,
effective use of system resources) are the same requirements as for a
desktop machine.</p>
<p>*BSD has access to the same desktop tools (KDE, GNOME, Firefox,
windowmanagers) as Linux. And ``office'' applications such as
OpenOffice suite work under *BSD too.</p>
<hr noshade="noshade" size="1"/>
<h3>Myth: <a name="old-codebase">The</a> BSD codebase is old, outdated, and
dying</h3>
<p>While the BSD codebase may be more than 20 years old, it is neither
outdated nor dying. Many professional users like the stability that years
of testing has provided FreeBSD.</p>
<p><a href="../features.html">Technological
enhancements</a> continue to be added to *BSD.</p>
<hr noshade="noshade" size="1"/>
<h3>Myth: <a name="bsd-war">The</a> *BSD projects are at war with one another,
splinter groups form each week</h3>
<p>No. While occasional advocacy may get a touch heated, the *BSD flavors
continue to work with one another. FreeBSD's Alpha port was initially
heavily based on the work done by the NetBSD team. Both NetBSD and
OpenBSD used the FreeBSD ports collection to bootstrap their own port
sets. FreeBSD and NetBSD both integrate security fixes first discovered
by the OpenBSD team.</p>
<p>The FreeBSD and NetBSD projects separated more than twenty years
ago. OpenBSD and DragonflyBSD are the only new BSD projects to
split off in the last twenty years.</p>
<hr noshade="noshade" size="1"/>
<h3>Myth: <a name="clustering">You</a> can't cluster *BSD systems (parallel
computing)</h3>
<p>The following URLs should disprove this;</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://people.FreeBSD.org/~brooks/papers/bsdcon2003/fbsdcluster/">
https://people.FreeBSD.org/~brooks/papers/bsdcon2003/fbsdcluster/</a>
Brooks Davis's paper about the implementation of a FreeBSD
cluster with more than 300 CPU's</li>
<li><a href="http://www.openbsd.org/faq/pf/carp.html">
http://www.openbsd.org/faq/pf/carp.html</a>
OpenBSD's Common Address Redundancy Protocol (CARP) to
build redundant clusters at the level of the firewall</li>
<li><a href="http://pf4freebsd.love2party.net/carp.html">
http://pf4freebsd.love2party.net/carp.html</a>
OpenBSD's CARP ported to FreeBSD</li>
</ul>
<p>Note, that
<a href="mailto:freebsd-cluster@FreeBSD.org">freebsd-cluster</a>
mailing list is available for further discussion about
clustering of FreeBSD.</p>
<hr noshade="noshade" size="1"/>
<h3>Myth: <a name="support">There's no commercial support for *BSD</a></h3>
<p><b>FreeBSD:</b> The <a href="../commercial/consult_bycat.html">FreeBSD
Commercial Vendors Page</a> lists companies that offer commercial
support for FreeBSD.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.freebsdmall.com">FreeBSD
Mall</a> also offer commercial support, along with shirts,
hats, books, software, and promotional items.</p>
<p><b>OpenBSD:</b> The <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/support.html">OpenBSD Commercial
Consulting Page</a> lists companies that offer commercial support for
OpenBSD.</p>
<hr noshade="noshade" size="1"/>
<h3>Myth: <a name="applications">There</a> are no applications for *BSD</h3>
<p>The free software community started running on predominantly BSD
systems (SunOS and similar). *BSD users can generally compile software
written for these systems without needing to make any changes.</p>
<p>In addition, each *BSD project uses a ``ports'' system to make the
building of ported software much easier.</p>
<p><b>FreeBSD:</b> There are currently more than 26,000
applications ready to download and install in the FreeBSD ports
collection. On i386 and AMD64, the Linux emulation layer will
also run the vast majority of Linux applications. On the AMD64
architectures there is a compatibility layer to run 32-bit FreeBSD binaries.</p>
<p><b>NetBSD:</b> The Linux emulation layer will run the vast majority of
i386 Linux applications, and the majority of SunOS4 applications can be
run on a SPARCStation.</p>
<p><b>OpenBSD:</b> There are currently more than 3700 applications
ready to download and install in the OpenBSD ports collection. The Linux
emulation layer will also run the vast majority of i386 Linux
applications, and the majority of SunOS4 applications can be run on a
SPARCStation.</p>
<p>Both NetBSD and OpenBSD are able to use applications in FreeBSD's ports
collection with minimal effort. Their lower number of ported
applications reflects this.</p>
<p>It is true that most companies when porting to PC Unix will choose Linux
first. Fortunately, *BSD's Linux emulation layer will run these
programs (Acrobat, StarOffice, Mathematica, WordPerfect, Quake, Intel
ICC compiler, Compaq's Alpha compiler ...)
with few, if any, problems.</p>
<p>As a historical note, the first version of Netscape Navigator that ran
on FreeBSD with Java support was the Linux version. These day you can
also use a native FreeBSD version of Mozilla with a native Java
plugin, all compiled conveniently from ports.</p>
<hr noshade="noshade" size="1"/>
<h3>Myth: <a name="beats">*BSD</a> is better than (insert other system)</h3>
<p>This is user opinion only.</p>
<hr noshade="noshade" size="1"/>
<h3>Myth: <a name="beaten">(insert some other system)</a> is better than *BSD</h3>
<p>This is user opinion only.</p>
<hr noshade="noshade" size="1"/>
<h2>Contributors</h2>
<p>Members of the FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD projects have contributed
to this page;</p>
<table width="100%">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Nik Clayton
<<a href="mailto:nik@FreeBSD.org">nik@FreeBSD.org</a>></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Jordan Hubbard
<<a href="mailto:jkh@FreeBSD.org">jkh@FreeBSD.org</a>></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Ian F. Darwin
<<a href="mailto:ian@DarwinSys.com">ian@DarwinSys.com</a>></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Adrian Filipi-Martin
<<a href="mailto:adrian@ubergeeks.com">adrian@ubergeeks.com</a>></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Tom Rhodes
<<a href="mailto:trhodes@FreeBSD.org">trhodes@FreeBSD.org</a>></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</body>
</html>
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