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Show First 20 Lines • Show All 71 Lines • ▼ Show 20 Lines	<para>&os; is an Open Source, Unix-like operating system for x86
If you are interested in contributing something to the Project		If you are interested in contributing something to the Project
(code, hardware, funding), see the <link		(code, hardware, funding), see the <link
xlink:href="&url.articles.contributing;/index.html">Contributing		xlink:href="&url.articles.contributing;/index.html">Contributing
to &os;</link> article.</para>		to &os;</link> article.</para>

<sect2 xml:id="os-overview">		<sect2 xml:id="os-overview">
<title>What Can &os; Do?</title>		<title>What Can &os; Do?</title>

<para>&os; has many noteworthy features. Some of these		<para>&os; is a complete, Open Source, standards-compliant
		Unix system, with all the associated features that are
		bcrUnsubmitted Done Inline Actions Who is "we"? I would rephrase it like this to avoid it: "... with all the associated features that are nowadays taken for granted, such as ..." bcr: Who is "we"? I would rephrase it like this to avoid it: "... with all the associated features…
		nowadays taken for granted, such as preemptive multitasking,
		memory protection, virtual memory, multi-user facilities, SMP
		support, all the Open Source development tools for different
		languages and frameworks, and desktop features centered around
		X Window System, KDE, or GNOME. Its particular strenghts
		allanjudeUnsubmitted Done Inline Actions Maybe the word 'complete' is better than 'full-fledged' allanjude: Maybe the word 'complete' is better than 'full-fledged'
are:</para>		are:</para>

<itemizedlist>		<itemizedlist>
<listitem>		<listitem>
<para><emphasis>Preemptive multitasking</emphasis>		<para><emphasis>Liberal Open Source license</emphasis>,
<indexterm>		which grants you rights to freely modify and extend
<primary>preemptive multitasking</primary>		its source code and incorporate it in both Open Source
</indexterm> with dynamic priority adjustment to ensure		projects and closed products without imposing
smooth and fair sharing of the computer between		restrictions typical to copyleft licenses, as well
applications and users, even under the heaviest of		as avoiding potential license incompatibility
loads.</para>		problems.</para>
</listitem>		</listitem>

<listitem>		<listitem>
<para><emphasis>Multi-user facilities</emphasis><indexterm>		<para><emphasis>Strong TCP/IP networking</emphasis>
<primary>multi-user facilities</primary>		<indexterm> <primary>TCP/IP
</indexterm> which allow many people to use a &os; system		networking</primary></indexterm> - &os;
simultaneously for a variety of things. This means, for		implements industry standard protocols with ever
example, that system peripherals such as printers and tape		increasing performance and scalability. This makes
drives are properly shared between all users on the system		it a good match in both server, and routing/firewalling
or the network and that individual resource limits can be		roles - and indeed many companies and vendors use it
placed on users or groups of users, protecting critical		precisely for that purpose.</para>
system resources from over-use.</para>
</listitem>		</listitem>

<listitem>		<listitem>
<para>Strong <emphasis>TCP/IP		<para><emphasis>Fully integrated OpenZFS support</emphasis>,
networking</emphasis><indexterm>		including root-on-ZFS, ZFS Boot Environments, fault
<primary>TCP/IP networking</primary>		management, administrative delegation, support for jails,
</indexterm> with support for industry standards such as		&os; specific documentation, and system installer
SCTP, DHCP, NFS, NIS, PPP, SLIP, IPsec, and IPv6. This		support.</para>
		bcrUnsubmitted Done Inline Actions I would use "OpenZFS" here, to make it clear that it is not Oracle's ZFS implementation we are spporting. bcr: I would use "OpenZFS" here, to make it clear that it is not Oracle's ZFS implementation we are…
means that your &os; machine can interoperate easily with
other systems as well as act as an enterprise server,
providing vital functions such as NFS (remote file access)
and email services or putting your organization on the
Internet with WWW, FTP, routing and firewall (security)
services.</para>
</listitem>		</listitem>
		allanjudeUnsubmitted Done Inline Actions <emphasis>Fully integrated ZFS support</emphasis>, including root-on-ZFS, ZFS Boot Environments, fault management, administrative delegation, support for jails, &os; specific documentation, and system installer support. allanjude: <emphasis>Fully integrated ZFS support</emphasis>, including root-on-ZFS, ZFS Boot…

<listitem>		<listitem>
<para><emphasis>Memory protection</emphasis><indexterm>		<para><emphasis>Extensive security features</emphasis>,
<primary>memory protection</primary>		from the Mandatory Access Control framework to Capsicum
</indexterm> ensures that applications (or users) cannot		capability and sandbox mechanisms.</para>
interfere with each other. One application crashing will
not affect others in any way.</para>
</listitem>		</listitem>

<listitem>		<listitem>
<para>The industry standard		<para><emphasis>Over 30 thousand prebuilt
<emphasis>X Window System</emphasis><indexterm>		packages</emphasis> for all supported architectures,
<primary>X Window System</primary>		and the Ports Collection which makes it easy to build your
</indexterm> (X11R7) can provide a graphical user		own, customized ones.</para>
interface (GUI) on any machine and comes with full
sources.</para>
</listitem>		</listitem>

<listitem>		<listitem>
<para>		<para><emphasis>Documentation</emphasis> - in addition
<indexterm>		to Handbook and books from different authors that cover
<primary>binary compatibility</primary>		topics ranging from system administration to kernel
<secondary>Linux</secondary>		internals, there are also the &man.man.1; pages, not only
</indexterm>		for userspace daemons, utilities, and configuration files,
<emphasis>Binary compatibility</emphasis> with many		but also for kernel driver APIs (section 9) and individual
		allanjudeUnsubmitted Not Done Inline Actions maybe just 'kernel APIs', since it covers more than just drivers, and we are mentioning drivers later in the sentence allanjude: maybe just 'kernel APIs', since it covers more than just drivers, and we are mentioning drivers…
		traszAuthorUnsubmitted Not Done Inline Actions I'm not sure about this one. "Kernel API" can mean the API that the kernel provides to the userspace; "kernel driver API" makes it very obvious that it's about the API for stuff that runs inside the kernel. trasz: I'm not sure about this one. "Kernel API" can mean the API that the kernel provides to the…
		allanjudeUnsubmitted Not Done Inline Actions ok allanjude: ok
programs built for Linux.</para>		drivers (section 4).</para>
</listitem>		</listitem>

<listitem>		<listitem>
<para>Thousands of <emphasis>ready-to-run</emphasis>		<para><emphasis>Simple and consistent repository structure
applications are available from the &os;		and build system</emphasis> - &os; uses a single
		bcrUnsubmitted Done Inline Actions s/uses single/uses a single/ bcr: s/uses single/uses a single/
<emphasis>ports</emphasis> and		repository for all of its components, both kernel and
<emphasis>packages</emphasis> collection. Why search the		userspace. This, along with an unified and easy to
net when you can find it all right here?</para>		customize build system and a well thought out development
		process makes it easy to integrate &os; with build
		infrastructure for your own product.</para>
</listitem>		</listitem>
		allanjudeUnsubmitted Done Inline Actions <emphasis>Simple, consistent repository structure and build system</emphasis> - &os; uses a single repository for all of its components, both kernel and userspace. This, along with an unified and easy to customize build system and a well thought out development process makes it easy to integrate &os; with build infrastructure for your own product. allanjude: <emphasis>Simple, consistent repository structure and build system</emphasis>…

<listitem>		<listitem>
<para>Thousands of additional and		<para><emphasis>Staying true to Unix philosophy</emphasis>,
<emphasis>easy-to-port</emphasis> applications are		preferring composability instead of monolithic <quote>all
available on the Internet. &os; is source code compatible		in one</quote> daemons with hardcoded behaviour.</para>
with most popular commercial &unix; systems and thus most
applications require few, if any, changes to
compile.</para>
</listitem>		</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Demand paged <emphasis>virtual
memory</emphasis><indexterm>
<primary>virtual memory</primary>
</indexterm> and <quote>merged VM/buffer cache</quote>
design efficiently satisfies applications with large
appetites for memory while still maintaining interactive
response to other users.</para>
</listitem>

<listitem>		<listitem>
<para><emphasis>SMP</emphasis><indexterm>		<para><indexterm> <primary>binary compatibility</primary>
<primary>Symmetric Multi-Processing		<secondary>Linux</secondary></indexterm>
(SMP)</primary>		<emphasis>Binary compatibility</emphasis> with Linux,
</indexterm> support for machines with multiple		which makes it possible to run many Linux binaries without
CPUs.</para>		the need for virtualisation.</para>
</listitem>		</listitem>

<listitem>
<para>
<indexterm>
<primary>compilers</primary>
<secondary>C</secondary>
</indexterm>
<indexterm>
<primary>compilers</primary>
<secondary>C++</secondary>
</indexterm>
A full complement of <emphasis>C</emphasis>
and <emphasis>C++</emphasis>
development tools.
Many additional languages for advanced research
and development are also available in the ports and
packages collection.</para>
</listitem>

<listitem>
<para><emphasis>Source code</emphasis><indexterm>
<primary>source code</primary>
</indexterm> for the entire system means you have the
greatest degree of control over your environment. Why be
locked into a proprietary solution at the mercy of your
vendor when you can have a truly open system?</para>
</listitem>

<listitem>
<para>Extensive <emphasis>online
documentation</emphasis>.</para>
</listitem>

<listitem>
<para><emphasis>And many more!</emphasis></para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>		</itemizedlist>

<para>&os; is based on the 4.4BSD-Lite<indexterm>		<para>&os; is based on the 4.4BSD-Lite<indexterm>
<primary>4.4BSD-Lite</primary>		<primary>4.4BSD-Lite</primary>
</indexterm> release from Computer		</indexterm> release from Computer
Systems Research Group (CSRG)<indexterm>		Systems Research Group (CSRG)<indexterm>
<primary>Computer Systems Research Group (CSRG)</primary>		<primary>Computer Systems Research Group (CSRG)</primary>
</indexterm> at the University of California at Berkeley, and		</indexterm> at the University of California at Berkeley, and
carries on the distinguished tradition of BSD systems		carries on the distinguished tradition of BSD systems
development. In addition to the fine work provided by CSRG,		development. In addition to the fine work provided by CSRG,
the &os; Project has put in many thousands of hours in		the &os; Project has put in many thousands of man-hours
fine tuning the system for maximum performance and reliability		into extending the functionality and fine-tuning the system
		bcrUnsubmitted Not Done Inline Actions s/in/into/ s/fine tuning/fine-tuning/ bcr: s/in/into/ s/fine tuning/fine-tuning/
		allanjudeUnsubmitted Not Done Inline Actions /in extending/into extending/ allanjude: /in extending/into extending/
		for maximum performance and reliability
in real-life load situations. &os; offers performance and		in real-life load situations. &os; offers performance and
reliability on par with commercial offerings, combined with		reliability on par with other Open Source and commercial
many cutting-edge features not available anywhere else.</para>		offerings, combined with cutting-edge features not available
		anywhere else.</para>

<para>The applications to which &os; can be put are truly		<para>The applications to which &os; can be put are truly
limited only by your own imagination. From software		limited only by your own imagination. From software
development to factory automation, inventory control to		development to factory automation, inventory control to
azimuth correction of remote satellite antennae; if it can be		azimuth correction of remote satellite antennae; if it can be
done with a commercial &unix; product then it is more than		done with a commercial &unix; product then it is more than
likely that you can do it with &os; too! &os; also benefits		likely that you can do it with &os; too! &os; also benefits
significantly from literally thousands of high quality		significantly from literally thousands of high quality
applications developed by research centers and universities		applications developed by research centers and universities
around the world, often available at little to no cost.		around the world, often available at little to no cost.</para>
Commercial applications are also available and appearing in
greater numbers every day.</para>

<para>Because the source code for &os; itself is generally		<para>Because the source code for &os; itself is generally
available, the system can also be customized to an almost		available, the system can also be customized to an almost
unheard of degree for special applications or projects, and in		unheard of degree for special applications or projects, and in
ways not generally possible with operating systems from most		ways not generally possible with operating systems from most
major commercial vendors. Here is just a sampling of some of		major commercial vendors. Here is just a sampling of some of
the applications in which people are currently using		the applications in which people are currently using
&os;:</para>		&os;:</para>
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