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From FBSD_tips

[edit] CHART

Item	FreeBSD	Linux	Windows	Mac OSX
#Administrative interfaces	Adaptable CLI oriented toolbox approach	Adaptable CLI and GUI options exist	Geared for specific cases GUI oriented Discussion	Adaptable CLI and GUI options exist
Reliability	Discussion	Discussion	Discussion	Discussion
#Performance	Discussion	Discussion	Discussion	Discussion
#Networking Performance	Discussion	Discussion	Discussion	Discussion
#Security	Discussion	Discussion	Discussion	Discussion
Firewall	Discussion	Discussion	Discussion	Discussion
#Process Isolation, credential control	Discussion Jails MAC	Discussion SELinux	Discussion	Discussion
#Virtualization	Qemu Discussion	User Mode Linux Qemu Xen KVM Discussion	Discussion	Discussion
#Device Drivers	Discussion	Discussion	Discussion	Discussion
#Commercial Applications	#Commercial Applications: FreeBSD	#Commercial Applications: Linux	#Commercial Applications: Windows	#Commercial Applications: OS X
#Cross-compatibilty	FreeBSD can run linux. FreeBSD supports WINE for Windows binaries. Discussion	Linux supports WINE for Windows binaries. Discussion	No native support for foriegn binaries exists. Discussion	OS X supports WINE for Windows binaries. Discussion
#Backward compatibility	Discussion	Discussion	Discussion	Discussion
#FOSS Applications	#FOSS Applications: FreeBSD	#FOSS Applications: Linux	#FOSS Applications: Windows	#FOSS Applications: OS X
#Software maintance	#Software maintance: FreeBSD	#Software maintance: Linux	#Software maintance: Windows	#Software maintance: OS X
#Development environment	#Development environment: FreeBSD	#Development environment: Linux	#Development environment: Windows	#Development environment: OS X
#Development infrastructure	#Development infrastructure: FreeBSD	#Development infrastructure: Linux	#Development infrastructure: Windows Because windows is closed source it is unknown how good its development infrastructure actually is.	#Development infrastructure: OS X Because mac is closed source it is unknown how good its development infrastructure actually is.
#Free support	#Free support: FreeBSD	#Free support: Linux	#Free support: Windows	#Free support: OS X
#Commercial Support	#Commercial Support: FreeBSD	#Commercial Support: Linux	#Commercial Support: Windows	#Commercial Support: OS X
#Bug and security fixes	#Bug and security fixes: FreeBSD	#Bug and security fixes: Linux	#Bug and security fixes: Windows	#Bug and security fixes: OS X
#File systems	#File systems: FreeBSD	#File systems: Linux	#File systems: Windows	#File systems: OS X
#Cost	#Cost: FreeBSD	#Cost: Linux	#Cost: Windows	#Cost: OS X

[edit] Administrative interfaces

[edit] Administrative interfaces: FreeBSD

[edit] Administrative interfaces: Linux

[edit] Administrative interfaces: Windows

Administrative interfaces tend towards monolithic design, and also combine more functional systems, whereas FreeBSD and Linux subsystems are administered individually, there are still many parallels. The service manager, and the attendant net command line interface are largely analogous to the FreeBSD /etc/rc.d/* commands for starting and stopping services.

[edit] Administrative interfaces: OS X

[edit] Reliability

Reliability can be a vague term, one definition is :

The ability of a person or system to perform and maintain its 
functions in routine circumstances, as well as hostile or unexpected 
circumstances.

Obviously, just OS uptime is too narrow an interpretation of Reliability to be widely descriptive of the OS's ability to fullfill it's tasks. If the task is to serve web pages, and the http server keeps crashing the mere fact the OS stays running is not the crucial issue. But taken in conjunction with other metrics it can be a good barometer of what to expect from the OS.

[edit] Reliability: FreeBSD

There are numerous testimonials of active servers with uptimes measured in years.

[edit] Reliability: Linux

There are numerous testimonials of active servers with uptimes measured in years.

[edit] Reliability: Windows

This article claims that windows server 2003 has better uptime than Linux but worse than Unix. More recent/accurate studies are requested.

[edit] Reliability: OS X

[edit] Performance

[edit] Performance: FreeBSD

[edit] Performance: Linux

[edit] Performance: Windows

[edit] Performance: OS X

[edit] Networking Performance

[edit] Networking Performance: FreeBSD

FreeBSD is known for very high network performance, and has set several 'high water marks' on key internet sites.

[edit] Networking Performance: Linux

[edit] Networking Performance: Windows

[edit] Networking Performance: OS X

[edit] Security

[edit] Security: FreeBSD

[edit] Security: Linux

[edit] Security: Windows

[edit] Security: OS X

[edit] Firewall

[edit] Firewall: FreeBSD

FreeBSD includes 3 very robust packet filtering firewall systems (IPFW, PF and IPFILTER) and many intrusion detection tools. See this firewall chart for feature comparisons and examples of use.

[edit] Firewall: Linux

Linux does include a very robust packet filtering firewall system and many intrusion detection tools.

[edit] Firewall: Windows

The Windows firewall is not good.
There is a port of IPFW for windows here.

[edit] Firewall: OS X

OS X comes with IPFW

[edit] Process Isolation

[edit] Process Isolation: FreeBSD

[edit] Process Isolation: Linux

[edit] Process Isolation: Windows

[edit] Process Isolation: OS X

[edit] Virtualization

[edit] Virtualization: FreeBSD

[edit] Virtualization: Linux

[edit] Virtualization: Windows

[edit] Virtualization: OS X

[edit] Device Drivers

[edit] Device Drivers: FreeBSD

FreeBSD has very few non-core device drivers (e.g. camera, fingerprint reader, and even printers and scanners)

[edit] Device Drivers: Linux

[edit] Device Drivers: Windows

Microsoft has excellent relationships with hardware vendors. There are often conflicts when using a device driver on different versions of Microsoft Windows, but overall Windows users have excellent access to third party device drivers.

[edit] Device Drivers: OS X

OS X only works on the hardware supplied by apple. Because of this the device drivers are well tested. However choice of hardware is also limited

[edit] Commercial Applications

[edit] Commercial Applications: FreeBSD

Very few commercial applications are written for freeBSD. Although freeBSD is able to run linux binaries this does not count for freeBSD in the field

[edit] Commercial Applications: Linux

[edit] Commercial Applications: Windows

There are thousands if not tens of thousands of applications written for windows. More than any other OS to date.

[edit] Commercial Applications: OS X

[edit] Cross-compatibilty

[edit] Cross-compatibilty: FreeBSD

[edit] Cross-compatibilty: Linux

[edit] Cross-compatibilty: Windows

[edit] Cross-compatibilty: OS X

[edit] Backward compatibility

[edit] Backward compatibility: FreeBSD

[edit] Backward compatibility: Linux

[edit] Backward compatibility: Windows

[edit] Backward compatibility: OS X

[edit] FOSS Applications

[edit] FOSS Applications: FreeBSD

[edit] FOSS Applications: Linux

[edit] FOSS Applications: Windows

[edit] FOSS Applications: OS X

[edit] Software maintance

[edit] Software maintance: FreeBSD

[edit] Software maintance: Linux

[edit] Software maintance: Windows

[edit] Software maintance: OS X

[edit] Development environment

[edit] Development environment: FreeBSD

FreeBSD includes an extensive collection of development tools. You get a complete C/C++ development system (editor, compiler, debugger, profiler, etc.) and powerful Unix development tools for Java, HTTP, Perl, Python, Tcl/Tk, Awk, Sed, etc. All of these are free, and are included in the basic FreeBSD installation. All come with full source code.

[edit] Development environment: Linux

Linux includes all the same development tools as FreeBSD, with compilers and interpreters for every common programming language, all the GNU programs, including the powerful GNU C/C++ Compiler, Emacs editor, and GDB debugger.

[edit] Development environment: Windows

Very few development tools are included with Windows. Most need to be purchased separately, and are rarely compatible with each other.

[edit] Development environment: OS X

OS X ships with a complete development toolchain although it is not installed by default.

[edit] Development infrastructure

[edit] Development infrastructure: FreeBSD

The source code for the entire system is available in a centralized source code repository running under CVS. A large team (200+) of senior developers has write access to this repository and they coordinate development by reviewing and commiting the best changes of the development community at large. FreeBSD is engineered to find elegant solutions for overall goals, rather than quick hacks to add new functionality.

[edit] Development infrastructure: Linux

[edit] Development infrastructure: Windows

Because windows is closed source it is unknown how good its development infrastructure actually is.

[edit] Development infrastructure: OS X

Because mac is closed source it is unknown how good its development infrastructure actually is.

[edit] Free support

[edit] Free support: FreeBSD

There is a large amount of free, informal support available through Usenet newsgroups and mailing lists, such as questions@freebsd.org.

[edit] Free support: Linux

There are many forums where Linux questions are answered for free, such as newsgroups and mailing lists.

[edit] Free support: Windows

No free support is provided by the developers but many free forums, mailing lists, and irc channels exist for windows support</td>

[edit] Free support: OS X

Similar to windows - alhough the number of such free support forums is far fewer.

[edit] Commercial Support

[edit] Bug and security fixes

[edit] Bug and security fixes: FreeBSD

Once a problem is found, source code patches are often available within a few hours.

[edit] Bug and security fixes: Linux

While patches are often generated quite quickly - only linus has the authority to add them. Each distrobution has its own cycle of maintence.

[edit] Bug and security fixes: Windows

Once a bug is found Microsoft releases a patch one a month on "patch tuesday"

[edit] Bug and security fixes: OS X

[edit] File systems

[edit] File systems: FreeBSD

UFS2
ext2/ext3 (w/o journalling)
FAT
ISO 9660*
UDF
NFS
ReiserFS (read only)
XFS (experimental)
ZFS (experimental)

[edit] File systems: Linux

ext2
ext3
ext4
ReiserFS
FAT
ISO 9660
UDF
NFS

[edit] File systems: Windows

Natively supported filesystems

NTFS
FAT ISO 9660
UDF

3rd-party driver supported filesystems

ext2
ext3
reiserfs9
HFS</td>

[edit] File systems: OS X

Natively supported filesystems

HFS+ (default)
HFS
UFS
AFP
ISO 9660
FAT
UDF
NFS
SMBFS
NTFS
FTP
WebDAV
ZFS