Not-actually Linux distro review: FreeBSD 12.1-RELEASE

Enlarge / We could have used one of these FreeBSD stress balls while trying to get a desktop running. (credit: FAndrey / Flickr)

This month's Linux distro review isn't of a Linux distribution at all-instead, we're taking a look at FreeBSD, the original gangster of free Unix-like operating systems.

The first FreeBSD release was in 1993, but the operating system's roots go further back-considerably further back. FreeBSD started out in 1992 as a patch-release of Bill and Lynne Jolitz's 386BSD-but 386BSD itself came from the original Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). BSD itself goes back to 1977-for reference, Linus Torvalds was only seven years old then.

Before we get started, I'd like to acknowledge something up front-our distro reviews include the desktop experience, and that is very much not FreeBSD's strength. FreeBSD is far, far better suited to running as a headless server than as a desktop! We're going to get a full desktop running on it anyway, because according to Lee Hutchinson, I hate myself-and also because we can't imagine readers wouldn't care about it.

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