This document is a database of links related to the BSD operating systems and BSD software license.
Structure is as follows:
- Operating Systems - official links
- BSD News - where to look for news?
- Forums and communities - reddit, forums, meetups etc
- Learning - where to learn BSD
- Books - books about BSD
- BSD related software
In this section you can find official BSD OSes links (in alphabethical order ) with short description as can be found on their pages.
Bitrig is a free, fast, and secure Unix-like Open Source operating system. It is available on current hardware platforms. The source code is freely available under a permissive license.
BSD Router Project (BSDRP) is an embedded free and open source router distribution based on FreeBSD with Quagga and Bird.
DragonFly belongs to the same class of operating systems as other BSD-derived systems and Linux. It is based on the same UNIX ideals and APIs and shares ancestor code with other BSD operating systems. DragonFly provides an opportunity for the BSD base to grow in an entirely different direction from the one taken in the FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD series.
EdgeBSD is a new member of the family of BSD-based Operating Systems, starting development with the current NetBSD codebase with Git for Source Code Management. Package management is based on pkgsrc.
FreeBSD is an advanced computer 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.
GhostBSD is a user-friendly BSD operating system built on top of TrueOS. GhostBSD aims to provide a familiar workstation with all of the features and benefits of FreeBSD, combined with a twist that is the MATE desktop environment and a focus on user-friendliness. Available in both 32- and 64-bit versions, GhostBSD is suitable for newcomers, as well as experienced BSD users.
HardenedBSD is a security-enhanced fork of FreeBSD. The HardenedBSD Project is implementing many exploit mitigation and security technologies on top of FreeBSD.
Isotop is a customised OpenBSD installation media. Its goal is to provide a ready-to-use environment to help you get in touch with OpenBSD.
LiteBSD is variant of 4.4BSD operating system for microcontrollers. Currently, only Microchip PIC32MZ family is supported. PIC32MZ is a MIPS32 processor with MMU with paging support, and 512kbytes of on-chip RAM. These resources are enough to run 4.4BSD.
MidnightBSD is a new BSD-derived operating system developed with desktop users in mind. It includes all the software you'd expect for your daily tasks — email, web browsing, word processing, gaming, and much more. With a small community of dedicated developers, MidnightBSD strives to create an easy-to-use operating system everyone can use, freely. Available for x86, AMD64 and as Virtual Machines.
MirOS BSD is a secure operating system from the BSD family for 32-bit i386 and sparc systems. It is based on 4.4BSD-Lite (mostly OpenBSD, some NetBSD®). The MirPorts Framework is a portable ports tree to facilitate the installation of additional software. The project also releases some portable software: mksh, a pdksh-based shell; PaxMirabilis, an archiver for various formats; MirMake, a framework for building software; MirNroff, an AT&T nroff based man page (and text document) formatter; MirCksum, a flexible checksumming and hash generation tool; and some more.
NomadBSD is a 64bit live system for USB flash drives, based on FreeBSD. Together with automatic hardware detection and setup, it is configured to be used as a desktop system that works out of the box, but can also be used for data recovery.
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. Its clean design and advanced features make it excellent for use in both production and research environments, and the source code is freely available under a business-friendly license. NetBSD is developed and supported by a large and vivid international community. Many applications are readily available through pkgsrc, the NetBSD Packages Collection.
NextBSD is a code name for "science project", a name which is more tongue-in-cheek than serious (naming projects is hard). It started as an effort to adapt some of the more interesting Open Source technologies from Darwin/OS X to FreeBSD.
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.
- official site
- download
- mailing list
- openbsd-awesome - the curated list of awesome OpenBSD products, vacancies, resources.
- OpenBSD Jumpstart
OPNsense is an open source,easy-to-use and easy-to-build FreeBSD based firewall and routing platform. OPNsense includes most of the features available in expensive commercial firewalls, and more in many cases. OPNsense® is a fork of pfSense® that in its turn has been forked from m0n0wall®.
OS108 is a fast, open and Secure replacement Operating System for Windows and macOS. Built on top of NetBSD, OS108 provides a simple desktop-oriented operating system.
pfSense® software is a free, open source customized distribution of FreeBSD specifically tailored for use as a firewall and router that is entirely managed via web interface. In addition to being a powerful, flexible firewalling and routing platform, it includes a long list of related features and a package system allowing further expandability without adding bloat and potential security vulnerabilities to the base distribution.
Project Trident is a desktop-focused operating system based on TrueOS. It uses the Lumina desktop as well as a number of self-developed utilities to provide an easy-to-use system that both BSD beginners and advanced system administrators can feel comfortable running.
RaspBSD is a image of FreeBSD 11 that is preconfigured in two different images for Raspberry Pi Computers (and more soon).
A long time ago, a very smart guy asked a very simple question. "Why do firewalls have to be big, slow, and hard to configure?" And he created m0n0wall.At this, it was amazingly successful. So successful that the FreeBSD based core was used as a basis for several other projects such as pfSense, Askozia, FreeNAS, and nas4free. Recently, a grandchild of m0n0wall was spawned from pfSense, OPNSense. But, m0n0wall has retired now, and some of us still feel the need for a small and lean firewall. SmallWall is that firewall.
As m0n0wall decided to close it's doors, and no further development is planned, people have created this fork.
Formerly known as PC-BSD. What makes TrueOS® different? TrueOS® is based on the legendary security and stability of FreeBSD. TrueOS® follows FreeBSD Current, with the latest drivers, security updates, and packages available. Also, our brand new driver package brings in support for newer Intel graphics chipsets and hardware. We pride ourselves on providing industry leading features like Personacrypt, which allows encrypting your user home directory and carrying it to other TrueOS® machines. TrueOS® also supports GELI full disk encryption, keeping your data secure even in the case of physical theft. So go ahead and give us a try. If you hit any snags along the way, we are glad to help.
ZRouter.org is a FreeBSD based firmware for embedded devices.
In this section you can find sites presenting news about BSD.
- #BSDHistory - twitter-sized facts about BSDs
- BSDSec.net - deadsimple BSD Security Advisories and Announcements
- DiscoverBSD.com - Discovering the Way of the BSD
- DragonFly BSD Digest - A running description of activity related to DragonFly BSD.
- FreeBSDNews - A blog advocating FreeBSD and offering project news and advice.
- NetBSD Planet
- OpenBSD Journal - A resource for the OpenBSD community
- Phoronix
- Planet FreeBSD
- Slashdot - BSD section of the popular Slashdot open source news and forum site.
- BSDNow - weekly BSD podcast, featuring news, interviews and tutorials, in MP3, OGG and MP4
- BSDTalk - Talking about the BSD family of free operating systems.
- Garbage - A podcast about technology, much of it garbage
- /r/bsd
- /r/bsdsec
- /r/dragonflybsd
- /r/freebsd
- /r/netbsd
- /r/openbsd
- /r/opnsesne - private
- /r/OPNsenseFirewall
- /r/unixporn
- /r/hardenedbsd
- BSD-PL - Polish BSD User Group
- HELBUG - Helsinki area BSD User Group
- FreeBSD Groups
- MetaBUG - A Global BSD Users Group Federation
- NetBSD Groups
- New Delhi BSD User Group
- OpenBSD Groups
- Southeast Michigan BSD User Group
- Knoxville BSD User Group
- The BSD Certification Group - The BSD Certification Group Inc. is a non-profit organization committed to creating and maintaining a global certification standard for system administration on BSD based operating systems.
- TeachBSD - Teaching Operating Systems with Tracing : a set of courses for students and software practitioners.
- FreeBSD Mastery: Specialty Filesystems
- FreeBSD Mastery: Storage Essentials
- FreeBSD Mastery: ZFS
- FreeBSD Mastery: Advanced ZFS
- Absolute FreeBSD 3rd Ed
- Absolute OpenBSD
- The Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD Operating System 2nd Ed
- FreeBSD Device Drivers
- Designing BSD Rootkits: An Introduction to Kernel Hacking