202b9e9781
Submitted by: Emily Boyd <emilyboyd@emilyboyd.com> Sponsored by: Google Summer of Code 2005
139 lines
5.9 KiB
Text
139 lines
5.9 KiB
Text
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" [
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<!ENTITY date "$FreeBSD: www/en/applications.sgml,v 1.28 2005/02/12 22:51:42 ceri Exp $">
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<!ENTITY title "About Applications for FreeBSD">
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<!ENTITY % navincludes SYSTEM "includes.navabout.sgml"> %navincludes;
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<!ENTITY % includes SYSTEM "includes.sgml"> %includes;
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]>
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<html>
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&header;
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<h2>Experience the possibilities with FreeBSD</h2>
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<p>FreeBSD can handle nearly any task you would expect of a &unix;
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workstation, as well as many you might not expect:</p>
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<h2>FreeBSD is a true open system with full
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source code.</h2>
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<p>There is no doubt that so-called open systems are <i>the</i>
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requirement for today's computing applications. But no commercial
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vendor-supplied solution is more open than one which includes full
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source code to the entire operating system, including the kernel and
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all of the system daemons, programs, and utilities. You can modify
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any part of FreeBSD to suit your personal, organizational, or
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corporate needs.</p>
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<p>With its generous <a
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href="&base;/copyright/freebsd-license.html">licensing policy</a>,
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you can use FreeBSD as the basis for any number of free <i>or
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commercial </i>applications.</p>
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<h2>FreeBSD runs thousands of
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applications.</h2>
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<p>Because FreeBSD is based on 4.4BSD, an industry-standard version of
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UNIX, it is easy to compile and run programs. FreeBSD also includes
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an extensive <a href="&base;/where.html">packages collection </a>and <a
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href="&base;/ports/index.html">ports collection</a> that bring
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precompiled and easy-to-build software right to your desktop or
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enterprise server. There is also a growing number of <a
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href="&base;/commercial/software.html">commercial applications</a>
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written for FreeBSD.</p>
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<p>Here are some examples of the environments in which FreeBSD is
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used:</p>
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<ul>
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<li><b>Internet services. </b>Many Internet Service Providers (ISPs)
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find FreeBSD ideal, running WWW, Usenet news, FTP, Email, and other
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services. Ready-to-run software like the <a
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href="http://www.apache.org/">Apache</a> web server or the ProFTPD
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FTP server make it easy to set up a business or
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community-centered ISP. Of course, with FreeBSD's unbeatable <a
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href="&base;/internet.html">networking</a>, your users will enjoy
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high speed, reliable services.</li>
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<li><b>X Window workstation. </b>From an inexpensive X terminal to an
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advanced X display, FreeBSD works quite well. Free X software (<a
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href="http://x.org/">X.Org</a>™) comes with the
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system. <a href="http://www.nvidia.com/">nVidia</a> offers native
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drivers for their high-performance graphics hardware,
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and the industry standard Motif® and OpenGL®
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libraries are supported. Both the <a
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href="http://www.kde.org">KDE</a> and <a
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href="http://www.gnome.org">GNOME</a> desktop environments
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enjoy full support and provide office suite functionality, with
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further good functionality available in the <a
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href="http://www.openoffice.org/">OpenOffice.Org</a> and
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<a href="http://www.softmaker.de/tml_en.htm">TextMaker</a>
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products.</li>
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<li><b>Networking. </b>From packet filtering to routing to name
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service, FreeBSD can turn any PC into a Internet firewall, email
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host, print server, PC/NFS server, and more.</li>
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<li><b>Software development.</b> A suite of development tools comes
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with FreeBSD, including the GNU C/C++ compiler and debugger and the
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Perl scripting language. &java; and Tcl/Tk development are also
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possible. Popular editors like XEmacs and more esoteric programming
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languages like Icon work just fine, too. And FreeBSD's shared
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libraries have always been easy to make and use.</li>
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<li><b>Net surfing.</b> A real UNIX workstation makes a great Internet
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surfboard. FreeBSD versions of <a
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href="http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/">Firefox</a>
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and <a href="http://www.opera.com/">Opera</a> are available
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for serious web users. Surf the web,
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publish your own web pages, read Usenet news, and send and receive
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email with a FreeBSD system on your desktop.</li>
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<li><b>Education and research.</b> FreeBSD makes an excellent
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research platform because it includes complete source code.
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Students and researchers of operating systems or other computer
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science fields can benefit greatly from such an open and
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well-documented system.</li>
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<li><b>And much more. </b>Accounting, action games,
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MIS databases, scientific visualization, video conferencing,
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Internet relay chat (IRC), home automation, multiuser dungeons,
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bulletin board systems, image scanning, and more are all real uses
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for FreeBSD today.</li>
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</ul>
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<h2>FreeBSD is an operating system that will grow with
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your needs.</h2>
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<p>Though FreeBSD is free software, it is also <i>user supported
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</i>software. Any questions you have can be posted to hundreds of
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FreeBSD developers and users simply by e-mailing the <a
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href="mailto:freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org">freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org</a>
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mailing list.</p>
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<p>FreeBSD also has a worldwide group of programmers and writers who fix
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bugs, add new features and document the system. Support for new
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devices or special features is an almost constant development process,
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and the team keeps a special eye out for problems which affect system
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stability. FreeBSD users are quite proud of not only how fast but how
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reliable their systems are.</p>
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<h2>What experts have to say . . .</h2>
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<p><i>``FreeBSD handles [our] heavy load quite well and it is nothing
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short of amazing. Salutations to the FreeBSD team.''</i></p>
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<div align="right"><p>---Mark Hittinger, administrator of WinNet
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Communications, Inc.</p></div>
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&footer;
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</body>
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</html>
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