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About FreeBSD
=============
What is FreeBSD?
----------------
FreeBSD is an operating system for a `variety of
platforms <./platforms/>`__ which focuses on features, speed, and
stability. It is derived from BSD, the version of UNIX? developed at the
University of California, Berkeley. It is developed and maintained by `a
large
community <./doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/contributors/staff-committers.html>`__.
Cutting edge features
---------------------
FreeBSD offers advanced networking, performance, security and
compatibility `features <./features.html>`__ today which are still
missing in other operating systems, even some of the best commercial
ones.
Powerful Internet solutions
---------------------------
FreeBSD makes an ideal Internet or Intranet server. It provides robust
network services under the heaviest loads and uses memory efficiently to
maintain good response times for thousands of simultaneous user
processes.
Advanced Embedded Platform
--------------------------
FreeBSD brings advanced network operating system features to appliance
and embedded platforms, from higher-end Intel-based appliances to Arm,
PowerPC, and shortly MIPS hardware platforms. From mail and web
appliances to routers, time servers, and wireless access points, vendors
around the world rely on FreeBSD's integrated build and cross-build
environments and advanced features as the foundation for their embedded
products. And the Berkeley open source license lets them decide how many
of their local changes they want to contribute back.
Run a huge number of applications
---------------------------------
With over 24,000 ported libraries and
`applications <./applications.html>`__, FreeBSD supports applications
for desktop, server, appliance, and embedded environments.
Easy to install
---------------
FreeBSD can be installed from a variety of media including CD-ROM, DVD,
or directly over the network using FTP or NFS. All you need are `these
directions <./doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/bsdinstall.html>`__.
FreeBSD is *free*
-----------------
|The BSD Daemon|
While you might expect an operating system with these features to sell
for a high price, FreeBSD is available `free of
charge <./copyright/index.html>`__ and comes with full source code. If
you would like to purchase or download a copy to try out, `more
information is
available <./doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/mirrors.html>`__.
Contributing to FreeBSD
-----------------------
It is easy to contribute to FreeBSD. All you need to do is find a part
of FreeBSD which you think could be improved and make those changes
(carefully and cleanly) and submit that back to the Project by means of
a bug report or a committer, if you know one. This could be anything
from documentation to artwork to source code. See the `Contributing to
FreeBSD <./doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/contributing/index.html>`__
article for more information.
Even if you are not a programmer, there are other ways to contribute to
FreeBSD. The `FreeBSD Foundation `__
is a non-profit organization for which direct contributions are fully
tax deductible. Please contact board@FreeBSDFoundation.org for more
information or write to: The FreeBSD Foundation, P.O. Box 20247,
Boulder, CO 80308, USA.
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