Some Simple Questions

[Charles Swiger]

On Jun 14, 2004, at 12:28 AM, Spuds wrote:
> 1) Is FreeBSD truly free, as in I don't have to pay for it and can  
> download it at no charge or is FreeBSD just a name?

Yes, FreeBSD is free as in "you don't have to pay for it".  You can  
download .iso images of the CDs to burn yourself for no charge from  
ftp.freebsd.org or other mirrors from:

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/mirrors- 
ftp.html

> 2) Is FreeBSD in any way affected by the SCO lawsuits against Linux  
> distributors and commercial users, as I am aware that FreeBSD is based  
> on Unix? I believe it is the fact that Linux may have Unix code, but I  
> am not sure, as I have read many different opinions.

FreeBSD is Unix, as in derived from the BSD sources.  SCO hasn't made  
any efforts to sue FreeBSD users or the project, and IMO are even less  
likely to succeed if they tried then they are likely to win their cases  
against Linux.

> 3) Is FreeBSD compatible with Linux software? I believe I read that  
> somewhere.

Yes, there is Linux binary compatibility support which gives you  
something close to a RedHat 7 environment.

> 4) Can FreeBSD run on a laptop that is hardware compatible, as I know  
> some OS's cannot run on laptops but can on desktops?

Sure.

-- 
-Chuck