freebsd vs. netbsd

[Polytropon]

On Mon, 8 Jun 2020 09:35:14 +0800, Wesley wrote:
> There were freebsd and netbsd (maybe others?) in BSD world.

Not "were" - are! :-)

You missed OpenBSD, the 3rd "big BSD" around today.

There are also operating systems derived from those BSDs,
such as DragonflyBSD or HardenedBSD (both from FreeBSD).



> What points did they focus by design?

Even though they are multi-purpose operating systems, their
focus is a little different. You can find out from the primary
sources of the projects:

1.	The FreeBSD Project
	The Power To Serve

	FreeBSD is an operating system used to power modern
	servers, desktops, and embedded platforms. A large
	community has continually developed it for more than
	thirty years. Its advanced networking, security, and
	storage features have made FreeBSD the platform of
	choice for many of the busiest web sites and most
	pervasive embedded networking and storage devices.

Source: https://www.freebsd.org/

Further reading: https://www.freebsd.org/about.html



2.	The NetBSD Project
	"Of course it runs NetBSD"

	NetBSD is a free, fast, secure, and highly portable
	Unix-like Open Source operating system. It is available
	for a wide range of platforms, from large-scale servers
	and powerful desktop systems to handheld and embedded
	devices.

Source: https://www.netbsd.org/

Further reading: https://www.netbsd.org/about/



3.	OpenBSD
	Only two remote holes in the default install,
	in a heck of a long time! 

	The OpenBSD project produces a FREE, multi-platform
	4.4BSD-based UNIX-like operating system. Our efforts
	emphasize portability, standardization, correctness,
	proactive security and integrated cryptography. As an
	example of the effect OpenBSD has, the popular OpenSSH
	software comes from OpenBSD.

Source: https://www.openbsd.org/

Further reading: https://www.openbsd.org/goals.html



> what are their use scenes then?

Oversimplified: NetBSD is the candidate for "runs everywhere",
so it's very useful for embedded systems and "strange" hardware
platforms; OpenBSD has security as primary goal, that makes it
perfect for servers; FreeBSD is also used for embedded, servers,
and desktops. In an attempt to summarize, all the BSDs can be
used for almost everything - from embedded, to laptops, desktops,
servers, and "combined forms". In reality, you _will_ find BSDs
in all those places, and you will also find them in places where
you don't know there is a BSD running, for example in routers,
managed switches, NAS, WLAN APs, firewall and other networking
appliances. They are also used as development platforms for a
lot of other systems.



-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...