From owner-freebsd-doc Mon Jul 15 12:04:27 1996 Return-Path: owner-doc Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id MAA01891 for doc-outgoing; Mon, 15 Jul 1996 12:04:27 -0700 (PDT) Received: from relay-2.mail.demon.net (disperse.demon.co.uk [158.152.1.77]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id MAA01679; Mon, 15 Jul 1996 12:02:51 -0700 (PDT) Received: from post.demon.co.uk ([158.152.1.72]) by relay-2.mail.demon.net id an12023; 15 Jul 96 19:25 +0100 Received: from jraynard.demon.co.uk ([158.152.42.77]) by relay-3.mail.demon.net id aa23203; 13 Jul 96 1:25 +0100 Received: (from fdocs@localhost) by jraynard.demon.co.uk (8.6.12/8.6.12) id UAA01705; Fri, 12 Jul 1996 20:34:25 GMT Date: Fri, 12 Jul 1996 20:34:25 GMT Message-Id: <199607122034.UAA01705@jraynard.demon.co.uk> From: James Raynard To: jkh@time.cdrom.com CC: doc@freebsd.org, www@freebsd.org In-reply-to: <14029.837166189@time.cdrom.com> (jkh@time.cdrom.com) Subject: Re: Anyone up for a little triage on http://www.freebsd.org/about.html? Sender: owner-doc@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk >>>>> "Jordan K. Hubbard" writes: > > I don't know about you folks, but that text's been looking a little > shopworn to me lately. Here are a few things I jotted down when I was thinking about a new Intro to the FAQ (some of them based on existing entries). Feel free to copy, amend or completely ignore them as appropriate:- What is FreeBSD?

Briefly, FreeBSD is an implementation of BSD4.4 Unix for the PC, and also draws on William Jolitz's port of U.C. Berkeley's Net/2 distribution to the i386, known as 386BSD. However, a very considerable number of bug fixes and enhancements have been made to the original code base, resulting in a extremely powerful and highly sophisticated operating system.

FreeBSD is used by companies, Internet Service Providers, researchers, computer professionals and home users all over the world. See the FreeBSD Gallery for a list.

For a more detailed description, see the Introduction to the FreeBSD . What are the goals of FreeBSD?

The goals of the FreeBSD Project are to provide software that may be used for any purpose and without strings attached. Many of us have a significant investment in the code (and project) and would certainly not mind a little financial renumeration now and then, but we're definitely not prepared to insist on it. We believe that our first and foremost "mission" is to provide code to any and all comers, and for whatever purpose, so that the code gets the widest possible use and provides the widest possible benefit. This is, I believe, one of the most fundamental goals of Free Software and one that we enthusiastically support. That code in our source tree which falls under the GNU Public License (GPL) or GNU Library Public License (GLPL) comes with slightly more strings attached, though at least on the side of enforced access rather than the usual opposite. Due to the additional complexities that can evolve in the commercial use of GPL software, we do, however, endeavor to replace such software with submissions under the more relaxed BSD copyright whenever possible. Why is it called FreeBSD?

It may be used free of charge, even by commercial users. The full source code is freely available, and the minimum possible number of restrictions have been placed upon its use, distribution and incorporation into other work (commercial or non-commercial). Anybody who has an improvement and/or bug fix is free to submit code and have it added to the source tree (assuming of course that their code is of sufficient quality!)

For those of our readers whose first language is not English, it may be worth pointing out here that the word ``free'' is being used in two ways here, one meaning ``it costs nothing'', the other meaning "you can do whatever you like". Apart from one or two things you