Why I love FreeBSD

A personal reflection on my first encounter with FreeBSD in 2002, how it shaped the way I design and run systems, and why its philosophy, stability, and community still matter to me more than twenty years later.

https://it-notes.dragas.net/2026/03/16/why-i-love-freebsd/

#FreeBSD #ITNotes #RunBSD #IT #SysAdmin #OS #OpenSource

Why I Love FreeBSD

A personal reflection on my first encounter with FreeBSD in 2002, how it shaped the way I design and run systems, and why its philosophy, stability, and community still matter to me more than twenty years later.

IT Notes

@stefano

I enjoyed and appreciated reading this post.

"I realized almost immediately that GNU/Linux and FreeBSD were so similar they were completely different."

This right here.

My initial impression with #FreeBSD in 2006 was quite similar. Of course, #Linux back then was a much different beast than what it has evolved (mutated?) into today.

Had I not pursued Linux system administration as a career, I *probably* would have stuck with FreeBSD.

We can make all the technical comparisons between the two OSes all day long but what drove my interest and enthusiasm are (1) the documentation and (2) the community.

@peteorrall thanks. I like to thing about FreeBSD and Linux something similar to: "England and America are two countries separated by a common language"