What’s the Difference Between the BSDs?
Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) was created in the late 70’s as a derivative of UNIX. In the early 90’s it split into three main forks, or flavors: FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and NetBSD. Each of the forks are open source and free for use. BSD flavors are known for security and stability. The downside to these points is that they tend to lag behind other operating systems like Linux in features.
There are many other releases of BSD but they are all based on one of these three forks. Technically OpenBSD is a fork of NetBSD, but the fork was over 20 years ago and they have since become their own distinct operating systems.
FreeBSD
FreeBSD is the most popular BSD fork. It was first released in 1993 and is still going strong today with the latest release being version 11. It is billed as a general purpose UNIX derivative.A 2005 poll found that 77% of BSD users were primarily using FreeBSD. If you don’t have a specific need for extra security and it runs on your hardware, FreeBSD is a good choice. Anecdotal experience tends to say that FreeBSD is the most user-friendly flavor of BSD.
OpenBSD
OpenBSD is used by 33% of users according to a 2005 poll and as such is the second most popular BSD fork. Its main focus is security, with its claim to fame being only 2 remote holes in the default install in “a heck of a long time.” OpenBSD is a little less user friendly than FreeBSD but it’s a great choice if maximum security is a system requirement. Much of the software developed alongside OpenBSD are used extensively in other systems.The main one is OpenSSH which is used by almost every Linux distro for remote access. If you want no fuss security out of the box, OpenBSD is a good choice. That being said, any of the BSD forks are very secure anyway.
NetBSD
NetBSD is the third most popular BSD fork according to a 2005 study which gave it a 16% share of the BSD market. Its claim to fame is its wide hardware support. NetBSD is one of the most compatible operating systems available. It is supported on architectures long abandoned by other vendors. It is a good choice if you have niche hardware and want a stable and secure OS. It’s not quite as user friendly as FreeBSD so that may be a better choice if you have mainstream hardware.