is freebsd linux?
 

since the web site says it is derived from the berkeley version of unix, it seems to me it is unix. but it is also free, which makes it linux?
thanks.

no, being free just makes it open source (open source = source is free), open source isn't just limited to linux, theres a few non-unix-like OSs out there that are totally free.

Yes, Freebsd is a unix-like operationg system, but it differs in many ways from linux.

free bsd is pretty cool - devlopment is relatively fast for a non-linux OS and it is capable of running many linux applications. Its the basis of MacOS 10 and is a derivative of the BSD 4.4 Unix OS - which was derived from AT&T System V Unix.

Its pretty darn unixy for not being a Unix Trademark lisencee. :-)

FreeBSD is not Linux, its BSD. While it will run many Linux applications (with emulation) and the directory tree is very similar there are differences. BSD is hard core, if you are not willing to read and study the manual and do a lot of searching for answers is not for you. BSD is most suited for server use although it does quite well on the desktop. The best way I've heard it is that Linux is for those who hate Windoze and BSD is for those who love Unix.

i guess i'm 1 of those ppl who don't really hate windows but like unix and love linux. i just wish my centrino worked with linux so i could take a big step further away from windows.

But what about those who love Unix AND hate Windoze? :)

then both linux AND bsd are for them

Moved: This thread is more suitable in the BSD Forum and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

Thank You! :)

Linux is loosely copied from Minix, BSD is a much improved version of the original UNIX (system III, IIRC). Most of the basic utilities and commands in Linux actually come from BSD, and many features in Sys V UNIX also come from BSD (the TCP/IP stack, for instance). AT&T filed suit against BSDi (a commercial BSD company), similar to the SCO attack in Linux, but it turned out that AT&T had improperly used BSD code too, so they settled.

The first two free BSD distributions were based off of 4.4BSD (NetBSD, then FreeBSD). OpenBSD later split off of NetBSD. Now there is DragonflyBSD that is forked from FreeBSD, Darwin (from Apple--loosely based on FreeBSD) which makes up most of userland on OS X, although the OS X kernel is not BSD (it's mach), OpenDarwin (the really free version of Darwin) and ekkoBSD that is God-only-knows what.