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In writing an introduction, I wanted to explore the benefits of FreeBSD, mostly notably those that separate it from Linux. Among those most touted are uptime and stability. As a workstation, it's unlikely you'll leave your computer on for endless hours and rare you'll use the myriad available servers except as a convenience while logged in. For demonstration purposes, I purposely launched as many apps as I could to try to crash it. I crashed it very quickly - or so it seemed. I actually only bombed out the X session. In fact, crashing FreeBSD is just about impossible as a sole local user. I was able to crash 4 simultaneous X sessions; each time, all I had to do to restore my system was log out, log back in, and relaunch the GUI. As for uptime, I had the system up for three days without interruption when I decided I wanted to move it. Then I checked out Netcraft's statistics, and at the time of this writing, of the longest running web servers they track, the top 13 are all running some form of BSD - only 8 of the top 50 are not running a BSD based OS. At that point, I concluded that it wasn't going down anytime soon. Sure, most servers are doing something simple like IP routing, admittedly not the hardest task, but many of the servers tracked in that graph are running complex databases. At home, my Linux PC has hiccuped from time to time. In fact, my firewall, which only does IP masquerading, serves DHCP, and runs a small firewall script, needs a reboot every week or it suddenly forgets what to do. My FreeBSD test box was up the entire time I had it. So I'm leaving it at this: uptime and stability for FreeBSD - check plus.

The other, much larger benefit of FreeBSD is the non-forked development. With Linux, which is actually just a kernel, there is no standardization. Anyone with a single course in programming can alter the system and release it, thanks to the GPL. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of distributions. Anyone with a single course in programming can alter the system and release it, thanks to Linux's licensing. FreeBSD, conversely, is maintained by a small group of programmers. Don't think of this is restrictive, though, think of it as being able to preserve the quality of the OS by making all code pass a final inspection. While all Linux distributions are subject to random editing and changes, FreeBSD is a constant across all computers everywhere it runs.

One small downside for me was that the device naming convention is different for BSD than for Linux. Don't look for names that you just "know;" they aren't necessarily there. However, you will find your typical directories. This is useful for downloading and installing new programs as well as searching for items. The bash shell, which most Linux users are using, is much more capable than DOS and, unfortunately, in order to effectively use FreeBSD, you'll need to learn to use it. I soon learned, though, that compiling your own applications isn't so tough. In fact, using the command line became almost fun for me. It allowed control that I have not felt in most GUIs.

1. "Which *BSD is right for me?"
2. "Installation"
3. "Configuring the X Server"
4. "Interlude: Some UNIX For Newbies"
5. "FreeBSD at First Glance"
6. "Applications and Conclusion"