Comparison of BSD operating systems

NetBSD

NetBSD aims to provide a freely redistributable operating system that professionals, hobbyists, and researchers can use in any manner they wish. The main focus is portability, through the use of clear distinctions between machine-dependent and machine-independent code. It runs on a wide variety of 32-bit and 64-bit processor architectures and hardware platforms, and is intended to interoperate well with other operating systems. NetBSD places emphasis on correct design, well-written code, stability, and efficiency, where practical, close compliance with open API and protocol standards is also aimed for. In June 2008, the NetBSD Foundation moved to a two-clause BSD license, citing changes at UCB and industry applicability.^[10] NPF is a project spawned by NetBSD.

Derivatives:

• OS108 – system with graphical desktop environment based on NetBSD.^[11]

OpenBSD

OpenBSD is a security-focused BSD known for its developers' insistence on extensive, ongoing code auditing for security and correct functionality, a "secure by default" philosophy, good documentation, and adherence to strictly open source licensing. The system incorporates numerous security features that are absent or optional in other versions of BSD. The OpenBSD policy on openness extends to hardware documentation and drivers, since without these, there can be no trust in the correct operation of the kernel and its security, and vendor software bugs would be hard to resolve.^[12]

OpenBSD emphasizes very high standards in all areas. Security policies include disabling all non-essential services and having sane initial settings; and integrated

OpenBSD prominently notes the success of its security approach on its website home page. As of April 2018^[update], only two vulnerabilities have ever been found in its default install (an OpenSSH vulnerability found in 2002, and a remote network vulnerability found in 2007) in a period of almost 22 years. According to OpenBSD expert Michael W. Lucas, OpenBSD "is widely regarded as the most secure operating system available anywhere, under any licensing terms."^[14]

OpenBSD has spawned numerous child projects such as OpenSSH, OpenNTPD, OpenBGPD, OpenSMTPD, PF, CARP, and LibreSSL. Many of these are designed to replace restricted alternatives.

Derivatives:

• LibertyBSD – Aimed to be a 'deblobbed' version of OpenBSD.
  FSDG certified, but ultimately never was accepted.^[17] LibertyBSD is no longer actively developed, and the project page directs people instead to HyperbolaBSD.^[18]
• Isotop,[19] a French project^[20] aiming to adapt OpenBSD to desktops and laptops,^[21] using xfce then dwm

DragonFly BSD

In September 2005, the BSD Certification Group, after advertising on a number of mailing lists, surveyed 4,330 BSD users, 3,958 of whom took the survey in English, to assess the relative popularity of the various BSD operating systems. About 77% of respondents used FreeBSD, 33% used OpenBSD, 16% used NetBSD, 2.6% used Dragonfly, and 6.6% used other (potentially non-BSD) systems. Other languages offered were Brazilian and European Portuguese, German, Italian, and Polish. Note that there was no control group or pre-screening of the survey takers. Those who checked "Other" were asked to specify that operating system.^[25]

Because survey takers were permitted to select more than one answer, the percentages shown in the graph, which are out of the number survey of participants, add up to greater than 100%. If a survey taker filled in more than one choice for "other", this is still only counted as one vote for other on this chart.^[25]

Another attempt to profile worldwide BSD usage is the *BSDstats Project, whose primary goal is to demonstrate to hardware vendors the penetration of BSD and viability of hardware drivers for the operating system. The project collects data monthly from any BSD system administrators willing to participate, and currently records the BSD market share of participating FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, DragonflyBSD, Debian GNU/kFreeBSD, TrueOS, and MirBSD systems.^[26]

In 2020, a new independent project was introduced to collect statistics with the goal of significantly increasing the number of observed parameters.^[27]

DistroWatch, well known in the Linux community and often used as a rough guide to free operating system popularity, publishes page hits for each of the Linux distributions and other operating systems it covers. As of 27 March 2020, using a data span of the last six months it placed FreeBSD in 21st place with 452 hits per day, GhostBSD in 51st place with 243 hits, TrueOS in 54th place with 182 hits per day, DragonflyBSD in 75th place with 180 hits, OpenBSD in 80th place with 169 hits per day and NetBSD in 109th place with 105 hits per day.^[28]

Names, logos, slogans

The names FreeBSD and OpenBSD are references to software freedom: both in cost and open source.^[29] NetBSD's name is a tribute to the Internet, which brought the original developers together.^[30]

The first BSD mascot was the

The NetBSD flag, designed in 2004 by Grant Bissett, is inspired by the original NetBSD logo,[32] designed in 1994 by Shawn Mueller, portraying a number of BSD daemons raising a flag on top of a mound of computer equipment. This was based on a World War II photograph, Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima. The Board of Directors of The NetBSD Foundation believed this was too complicated, too hard to reproduce and had negative cultural ramifications and was thus not a suitable image for NetBSD in the corporate world. The new, simpler flag design replaced this.^[33] The NetBSD slogan is "Of course it runs NetBSD", referring to the operating system's portability.

Originally, OpenBSD used the BSD daemon as a mascot, sometimes with an added

The DragonFly BSD logo, designed by Joe Angrisano, is a dragonfly named Fred.^[36] A number of unofficial logos^[37] by various authors also show the dragonfly or stylized versions of it. DragonFly BSD considers itself to be "the logical continuation of the FreeBSD 4.x series."^[38] FireflyBSD has a similar logo, a firefly, showing its close relationship to DragonFly BSD. In fact, the FireflyBSD website states that proceeds from sales will go to the development of DragonFly BSD, suggesting that the two may in fact be very closely related.

PicoBSD's slogan is "For the little BSD in all of us," and its logo includes a version of FreeBSD's Beastie as a child,^[39] showing its close connection to FreeBSD, and the minimal amount of code needed to run as a Live CD.

A number of BSD OSes use stylized version of their respective names for logos. This includes TrueOS, GhostBSD, DesktopBSD, ClosedBSD,^[40] and MicroBSD.^[41] TrueOS's slogan is "Personal computing, served up BSD style!", GhostBSD's "A simple, secure BSD served on a Desktop." DesktopBSD's "A Step Towards BSD on the Desktop." MicroBSD's slogan is "The small secure unix like OS."