The secure, stable, high-performance open source operating system 

FreeBSD is a modern, community-governed, open source operating system with enterprise-friendly permissive licensing.
It offers superior security, performance, and stability in a single production-ready package.


WHY USE FREEBSD?


FREEBSD END USERS

From Arm to Netflix, the world’s most innovative organizations and individuals trust FreeBSD for their mission-critical servers and devices.
Click on the logos to discover our end user case studies.


GET STARTED

Get FreeBSD

Ready to dive in? Download FreeBSD today and start enjoying stability, security and high-performance.

Learn

New to FreeBSD? Get started
with newbie resources to help you
hit the ground running.

Connect

Join the welcoming FreeBSD community to connect with experienced end users and start contributing.


Three-Part Ecosystem

A leading, long-standing, and highly active open source project, FreeBSD is democratically managed by an elected core team, and supported by the FreeBSD Foundation and community worldwide.

Operating
System

A modern, secure, stable, high-performance open source operating system, driven by an active global community.
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Foundation

The FreeBSD Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting and promoting the FreeBSD Project and community.
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Community

A dedicated global community of developers and contributors support and drive FreeBSD, electing a Core Team to lead the project.
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FREEBSD HISTORY

One of the longest-running, active open source projects, FreeBSD has been elevating and advancing computing for more than 30 years. Today, FreeBSD supports the technology crucial to modern lifestyles. From firing up Netflix to supporting the Edge with RGNets, it’s all built using FreeBSD.

1993

First open
governance

Set up a core group to provide leadership rather than having a single person in charge

2000

First container
virtualization

FreeBSD Jails partitions a system into several independent mini-systems

2003

First Mandatory
Access Control

First introduced in FreeBSD 5.0, MAC is a key security improvement used everywhere today

FREEBSD QUOTES

“Netflix picked FreeBSD 9 because it is a high-performing, low-maintenance, and reliable operating system supported by major hardware vendors. FreeBSD provides a simple but powerful solution capable of serving tens of thousands of simultaneous video streams across multiple 10Gbit fiber optic links.”

David Fullagar
Director of Content Delivery Architecture

A WELCOMING
GLOBAL COMMUNITY

Join a friendly community of FreeBSD enthusiasts, from end users to contributors, to discuss FreeBSD, meet fellow members, ask questions about the operating system, and get started contributing.

MAILING LISTS

Questions Mailing List

Connect with the FreeBSD community and find answers to issues you encounter.

Current Mailing List

Participate in discussions on FreeBSD with the global community.

Join the conversation!