FreeBSD is still going strong. Its strength comes from having built a strong base in its code, documentation, and culture. It has managed to evolve with the times, continuing to bring in new committers, and smoothly transition through several leadership groups. It continues to fill an important area of support that is an alternative to Linux. Specifically, companies needing redundancy require more than one operating system, since any single operating system may fall victim to a failure that could take out the entire company’s infrastructure. For all these reasons, FreeBSD has a bright future. In short, FreeBSD is awesome!
Having finally delved a bit deeper into FreeBSD this past year, I have to say it’s an incredibly nice operating system to use and maintain. In the end, it’s the lack of polish as a desktop and laptop user that prevents me from using it full-time, but the built-in tools are incredibly nice to use, software installation and updates are a breeze, and the documentation is great.
It really makes me wish the desktop and laptop was more of a focus for the developers, but I understand why it isn’t.
FreeBSD was the first FOSS *NIX i actually enjoyed using. I ran PC BSD for a time as my daily driver, and it was solid.
I had used FreeBSD as OS of choice for x86 based routers and server at my small ISP roughly 20 years ago. It was really solid. Then, a bit later I returned to it for 64-bit workstation based on very first Opteron. I am happy that is still running strong.
Its lack of focus on desktops is actually part of its success.
It’s freed from having to chase down the latest “shiny baubles”.