FreeBSD: An Open Source Alternative to Linux

1 Introduction

FreeBSD is a UNIX® like operating system based on the Berkeley Software Distribution. While FreeBSD and Linux are commonly perceived as being very similar, there are differences:

1. Linux itself is a kernel. Distributions (e.g. Red Hat, Debian, Suse and others) provide the installer and the utilities available to the user. http://www.linux.org/dist lists well over 300 distinct distributions. While giving the user maximum flexibility, the existence of so many distributions also increases the difficulty of transferring one's skills from one distribution to another. Distributions don't just differ in ease-of install and available programs; they also differ in directory layout, available shells and window managers, and software installation and patching routines.

   FreeBSD is a complete operating system (kernel and userland) with a well-respected heritage grounded in the roots of Unix development. [1] Since both the kernel and the provided utilities are under the control of the same release engineering team, there is less likelihood of library incompatibilities. Security vulnerabilities can also be addressed quickly by the security team. When new utilities or kernel features are added, the user simply needs to read one file, the Release Notes, which is publicly available on the main page of the FreeBSD website.

2. FreeBSD has a large and well organized programming base which ensures changes are implemented quickly and in a controlled manner. There are several thousand programmers who contribute code on a regular basis but only about 300 of these have what is known as a commit bit and can actually commit changes to the kernel, utilities and official documentation. A release engineering team provides quality control and a security officer team is responsible for responding to security incidents. In addition, there is an elected core group of 8 senior committers who set the overall direction of the Project.

   In contrast, changes to the Linux kernel ultimately have to wait until they pass through the maintainer of kernel source, Linus Torvalds. How changes to distributions occur can vary widely, depending upon the size of each particular distribution's programming base and organizational method.

3. While both FreeBSD and Linux use an Open Source licensing model, the actual licenses used differ. The Linux kernel is under the GPL license while FreeBSD uses the BSD license. These, and other Open Source licenses, are described in more detail at the website of the Open Source Initiative.

   The driving philosophy behind the GPL is to ensure that code remains Open Source; it does this by placing restrictions on the distribution of GPLd code. In contrast, the BSD license places no such restrictions, which gives you the flexibility of keeping the code Open Source or closing the code for a proprietary commercial product. [2] Having stable and reliable code under the attractive BSD license means that many operating systems, such as Apple OS X are based on FreeBSD code. It also means that if you choose to use BSD licensed code in your own projects, you can do so without threat of future legal liability.

2 FreeBSD Features

3 Security

Security is very important to the FreeBSD Release Engineering Team. This manifests itself in several concrete areas:

• All security incidents and fixes pass through the Security Team and are issued as publicly available Advisories. The Security Team has a reputation for quickly resolving known security issues. Full information regarding FreeBSD's security handling procedures and where to find security information is available at http://www.FreeBSD.org/security/.

• One of the problems associated with Open Source software is the sheer volume of available applications. There are literally tens of thousands of Open Source application projects each with varying levels of responsiveness to security incidents. FreeBSD has met this challenge head-on with VuXML. All software shipped with the FreeBSD operating system as well any software available in the Ports Collection is compared to a database of known, unresolved vulnerabilities. An administrator can use the portaudit(1) utility to quickly determine if any software on a FreeBSD system is vulnerable, and if so, receive a description of the problem and an URL containing a more detailed vulnerability description.

FreeBSD also provides many mechanisms which allow an administrator to tune the operating system to meet his security needs:

• The jail(8) utility allows an administrator to imprison a process; this is ideal for applications which don't provide their own chroot environment.

• The chflags(1) utility augments the security provided by traditional Unix permissions. It can, for example, prevent specified files from being modified or deleted by even the superuser.

• FreeBSD provides 3 built-in stateful, NAT-aware firewalls, allowing the flexibility of choosing the ruleset most appropriate to one's security needs.

• The FreeBSD kernel is easily modified, allowing an administrator to strip out unneeded functionality. FreeBSD also supports kernel loadable modules and provides utilities to view, load and unload kernel modules.

• The sysctl mechanism allows an administrator to view and change kernel state on-the-fly without requiring a reboot.

4 Support

Like Linux, FreeBSD offers many venues for support, both freely available and commercial.

5 Advantages to Choosing FreeBSD

There are many advantages to including FreeBSD solutions in your IT infrastructure:

• FreeBSD is well documented and follows many standards. This allows your existing intermediate and advanced system administrators to quickly transfer their existing Linux and Unix skillsets to FreeBSD administration.

• In-house developers have full access to all FreeBSD code [4] for all releases going back to the original FreeBSD release. Included with the code are all of the log messages which provide context to changes and bug fixes. Additionally, a developer can easily replicate any release by simply checking out the code with the desired label. In contrast, Linux traditionally didn't follow this model, but has recently adopted a more mature development model. [5]

• In-house developers also have full access to FreeBSD's GNATS bug-tracking database. They are able to query and track existing bugs as well as submit their own patches for approval and possible committal into the FreeBSD base code. http://www.FreeBSD.org/support.html#gnats

• The BSD license allows you to freely modify the code to suit your business purposes. Unlike the GPL, there are no restrictions on how you choose to distribute the resulting software.

6 Conclusion

FreeBSD is a mature UNIX-like operating system which includes many of the features one would expect in a modern UNIX system. For those wishing to incorporate an Open Source solution in their existing infrastructure, FreeBSD is an excellent choice indeed.