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box", and that IPsec supports hardware acceleration. Move mention of background file system checking and snapshots up to the soft updates section. Mention MPSAFE VFS work in 6.x. Attempt to slightly smooth language about thread features. Point out that Netgraph makes it easy to extend the network stack, as well as helping to reduce bugs in stack extensions. Mentions some of our MAC policy modules by name. Mention GBDE.
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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" [
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<!ENTITY date "$FreeBSD: www/en/features.sgml,v 1.23 2004/12/01 01:04:55 rwatson Exp $">
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<!ENTITY title "About FreeBSD's Technological Advances">
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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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<h1>FreeBSD offers many advanced features.</h1>
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<blockquote>
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<p>No matter what the application, you want your system's resources
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performing at their full potential. FreeBSD's advanced features
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enable you to do just that.</p>
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</blockquote>
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<hr align="left" noshade="noshade" width="100%"><font
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color="#FF0000"><font size="+1">A complete operating system based on
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4.4BSD.</font></font>
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<blockquote>
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<p>FreeBSD's distinguished roots derive from the latest <b>BSD</b>
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software releases from the Computer Systems Research Group at the
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University of California, Berkeley. The book <i>The Design and
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Implementation of 4.4BSD Operating System</i>, written by the 4.4BSD
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system architects, thus describes much of FreeBSD's core functionality
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in detail.</p>
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<p>Drawing on the skills and experience of a diverse and world-wide
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group of volunteer developers, the FreeBSD Project has worked to
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extend the feature set of the 4.4BSD operating system in many ways,
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striving constantly to make each new release of the OS more stable,
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faster and containing new functionality driven by user requests.</p>
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</blockquote>
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<hr align="left" noshade="noshade" width="100%"><font
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color="#FF0000"><font size="+1">FreeBSD provides higher performance,
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greater compatibility with other operating systems and less system
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administration.</font></font>
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<blockquote>
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<p>FreeBSD's developers attacked some of the more difficult problems in
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operating systems design to give you these advanced features:</p>
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<ul>
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<li><b>A merged virtual memory and filesystem buffer cache</b>
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continuously tunes the amount of memory used for programs and the
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disk cache. As a result, programs receive both excellent memory
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management and high performance disk access, and the system
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administrator is freed from the task of tuning cache sizes.</li>
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<li><b>Compatibility modules</b> enable programs for other operating
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systems to run on FreeBSD, including programs for Linux, SCO UNIX,
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and System V Release 4.</li>
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<li><b>Soft Updates</b> allows improved filesystem
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performance without sacrificing safety and reliability.
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It analyzes meta-data filesystem operations to avoid having
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to perform all of those operations synchronously.
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Instead, it maintains internal state about pending meta-data
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operations and uses this information to cache meta-data,
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rewrite meta-data operations to combine subsequent
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operations on the same files, and reorder meta-data
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operations so that they may be processed more efficiently.
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Features such as background filesystem checking and
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file system snapshots are built on the consistency
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and performance foundations of soft updates.</li>
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<li><b>File system snapshots</b>, permitting administrators to take
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atomic file system snapshots for backup purposes using the free
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space in the file system, as well as facilitating <b>background
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fsck</b>, which allows the system to reach multiuser mode without
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waiting on file system cleanup operations following power outages.
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</li>
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<li>Support for <b>IP Security (IPsec)</b> allows improved security in
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networks, and support for the next-generation Internet Protocol,
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IPv6. The FreeBSD IPSEC implementation includes support for a
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broad range of <b>accelerated crypto hardware</b>.</li>
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<li><b>Out of the box support for IPv6</b> via the KAME IPv6 stack
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allows FreeBSD to be seamlessly integrated into next generation
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networking environments. FreeBSD even ships with many applications
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extended to support IPv6!</li>
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<li><b>Multi-threaded SMP architecture</b> capable of executing the
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kernel in parallel on multiple processors, and with <b>kernel
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preemption</b>, allowing high priority kernel tasks to preempt
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other kernel activity, reducing latency. This includes a
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<b>multi-threaded network stack</b> and a <b>multi-threaded
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virtual memory subsystem</b>. With FreeBSD 6.x, support for a
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fully parallel VFS allows the UFS file system to run on multiple
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processors simultaneously, permitting load sharing of
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CPU-intensive I/O optimization.</li>
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<li><b>M:N application threading via pthreads</b> permitting threads
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to execute on multiple CPUs in a scaleable manner, mapping many user
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threads onto a small number of <b>Kernel Schedulable Entities</b>.
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By adopting the <b>Scheduler Activation</b> model, the threading
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approach can be adapted to the specific requirements of a broad
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range of applications.</li>
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<li><b>Netgraph pluggable network stack</b> allows developers to
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dynamically and easily extend the network stack through clean
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layered network abstractions. Netgraph nodes can implement a broad
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range of new network services, including encapsulation, tunneling,
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encryption, and performance adaptation. As a result, rapid
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prototyping and production deployment of enhanced network services
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can be performed far more easily and with fewer bugs.</li>
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<li><b>TrustedBSD MAC Framework extensible kernel security</b>,
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which allows developers to customize the operating system security
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model for specific environments, from creating hardening policies
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to deploying mandatory labeled confidentiality of integrity
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policies. Sample seucrity policies include <b>Multi-Level
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Security (MLS)</b>, and <b>Biba Integrity Protection</b>. Third
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party modules include <b>SEBSD</b>, a FLASK-based implementation
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of <b>Type Enforcement</b>.</li>
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<li><b>GEOM pluggable storage layer</b>, which permits new storage
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services to be quickly developed and cleanly integrated into the
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FreeBSD storage subsystem. GEOM provides a consistent and
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coherrent model for discovering and layering storage services,
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making it possible to layer services such as RAID and volume
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management easily.</li>
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<li>FreeBSD's <b>GEOM-Based Disk Encryption (GBDE)</b>, provides
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strong cryptographic protection using the GEOM Framework, and can
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protect file systems, swap devices, and other use of storage
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media.</li>
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<li><b>Kernel Queues</b> allow programs to respond more efficiently
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to a variety of asynchronous events including file and socket IO,
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improving application and system performance.</li>
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<li><b>Accept Filters</b> allow connection-intensive applications,
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such as web servers, to cleanly push part of their functionality into
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the operating system kernel, improving performance.</li>
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</ul>
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</blockquote>
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<hr align="left" noshade="noshade" width="100%"><font
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color="#FF0000"><font size="+1">FreeBSD provides many security features
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to protect networks and servers.</font></font>
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<blockquote>
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<p>The FreeBSD developers are as concerned about security as they are
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about performance and stability. FreeBSD includes kernel support for
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<b>stateful IP firewalling</b>, as well as other services, such as
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<b>IP proxy gateways</b>, <b>access control lists</b>, <b>mandatory
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access control</b>, <b>jail-based virtual hosting</b>, and
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<b>cryptographically protected storage</b>. These features can be
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used to support highly secure hosting of mutually untrusting
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customers or consumers, the strong partitioning of network segments,
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and the construction of secure pipelines for information scrubbing
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and information flow control.</p>
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<p>FreeBSD also includes support for encryption software, secure
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shells, Kerberos authentication, "virtual servers" created using
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jails, chroot-ing services to restrict application access to the
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file system, Secure RPC facilities, and access lists for services
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that support TCP wrappers.</p>
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</blockquote>
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&footer;
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</body>
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</html>
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