Comparison of open-source operating systems

This is a table comparing the various open source operating systems. Where not all of the non-EOL versions support a feature, the first version which support it is listed.

CPU/Architecture support

	GNU/Linux	FreeBSD	OpenBSD	NetBSD	DragonFly BSD	OpenSolaris	Darwin OpenDarwin	Minix	FreeDOS	NewOS	Haiku	MenuetOS	GNU Mach GNU Hurd	ReactOS	L4 Fiasco Pistachio	Plan9	AROS	Syllable	Inferno	FreeRTOS	eCos	pico]OS	HelenOS	E/OS	V2 OS	K42
x86/i386/IA-32	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes[1]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
x86 SMP	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
Xen	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
IA-64	Yes	Yes	No	No[2]	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes[3]	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
AMD64	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes[4]	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
PowerPC	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes[5]	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
PowerPC SMP	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
SPARC32	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes
SPARC64	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes		Yes
SPARC SMP	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Alpha	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes[6]	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
MIPS	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes[7]	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes
ARM	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
XScale	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
M68k	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
PA-RISC	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
other	FR-V, Cell, h8, s390, SuperH	PC98	VAX, m88k	SuperH, ns32k, VAX																AVR, PIC, MSP430, HCS12, 8052, MicroBlaze	CalmRISC, FR-V, h8, Matsushita AM3x, NEC V8xx, SuperH	6502, AVR
hosted mode	UML, coLinux, L4Linux, MkLinux, Itanium Linux-on-Linux, wombat						L4/Darwin								Fiasco-UX		i386-linux, i386-freebsd		Microsoft Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Plan 9, Mac OS X, Solaris, Irix, Unixware		DOS	80x86 DOS, 80x86 WIN32

^ try KolibriOS if MenuetOS fails
^ Pistachio supports AMD64; Fiasco only in the CVS version
^ Work-in-Progress

Hardware/Driver support

	GNU/Linux	FreeBSD	OpenBSD	NetBSD	DragonFly BSD	OpenSolaris	Darwin OpenDarwin	Minix	FreeDOS	NewOS	Haiku	MenuetOS	GNU Mach GNU Hurd	ReactOS	L4 Fiasco Pistachio	Plan9	AROS	Syllable	Inferno	FreeRTOS	eCos	pico]OS	HelenOS	E/OS	V2 OS	K42
ATA	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes					Yes						Yes
SATA	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes					No						Yes
SCSI	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes					No
USB 2.0	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes					No						Yes
USB 1.1	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes					No						Yes
FireWire	Yes	Yes		Yes
PCMCIA/PC card	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes								No
AGP	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes								No
Nvidia official driver IA32	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Nvidia official driver IA64	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Nvidia official driver AMD64	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
ATI official driver x86	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
ATI official driver x86_64	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
sound	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes												Yes
TV tuner/Video editing/Webcam	V4L	Yes		Yes								No
Networking	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes				Yes						Yes			Yes
NE2000/RTL8029	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes								Yes						Yes
RTL8139	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Gigabit Ethernet	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Wireless LAN	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Bluetooth	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes								No
IrDA	Yes	Yes		Yes								No

Network technologies

	GNU/Linux	FreeBSD	OpenBSD	NetBSD	DragonFly BSD	OpenSolaris	Darwin OpenDarwin	Minix	FreeDOS	NewOS	Haiku	MenuetOS	GNU Mach GNU Hurd	ReactOS	L4 Fiasco Pistachio	Plan9	AROS	Syllable	Inferno	FreeRTOS	eCos	pico]OS	HelenOS	E/OS	V2 OS	K42
firewall	Netfilter/iptables	IPFW2, IPFilter, PF	PF	IPFilter, PF[8]	IPFW2, IPFilter, PF	IPFilter	IPFW					No				ipmux
TCP/IP	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes				Yes				Yes					Yes
IPv6	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes									Yes
IPX	Yes	Yes										No
PPP	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes								No
PPPoE	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes[9]								No
DHCP	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
bridge	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
TUN/TAP	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
ssh	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
OpenVPN	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

^ NetBSD PF has no ALTQ support
^ NetBSD has a kernel only PPPoE driver, which is the less resource hungry.

File system support

	GNU/Linux	FreeBSD	OpenBSD	NetBSD	DragonFly BSD	OpenSolaris	Darwin OpenDarwin	Minix	FreeDOS	NewOS	Haiku	MenuetOS	GNU Mach GNU Hurd	ReactOS	L4 Fiasco Pistachio	Plan9	AROS	Syllable	Inferno	FreeRTOS	eCos	pico]OS	HelenOS	E/OS	V2 OS	K42
FAT16/dosfs, FAT32/vfat	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
NTFS	Yes[10]	Yes[11]	Yes[12]	Yes[13]	Yes[14]		Yes[15]	No	No						No
Ext2	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes			No				Yes	No				Yes
Ext3	Yes	Yes[16]							No					No
XFS	Yes	Yes[17]	No						No					No
ReiserFS	Yes	Yes[18]	No						No					No
UFS	Yes[19]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes		No					No
UFS2		Yes	No	Yes
HFS
HFS+
Minixfs	Yes		No					Yes	No					No
BeFS	Yes[20]		No					No	No		Yes			No
ISO 9660	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes											Yes
UDF	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes[21]		Yes	Yes
NFS	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
SMBFS	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes			Yes
RAM disk/tmpfs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
procfs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Virtual memory/swap	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
other special file systems	9P[22], FUSE[23], sysfs[24], configfs[25], Reiser4[26][27], JFS	FUSE, nullfs	AFS	LFS	nullfs	ZFS												AFS
RAID	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
quota	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Resource access control	Unix, ACL, MAC	Unix, ACL, MAC	Unix	Unix, Veriexec			Unix, ACL	Unix	No			No	Unix	No		Unix-like		Unix	Unix
encryption	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes			Yes									Yes
other special file system features	LVM	GEOM

^ partial write. maintained in 2.6
^ read only
^ experimental
^ with patch
^ from 2.6
^ with extensions

Important programs

	GNU/Linux	FreeBSD	OpenBSD	NetBSD	DragonFly BSD	OpenSolaris	Darwin OpenDarwin	Minix	FreeDOS	NewOS	Haiku	MenuetOS	GNU Mach GNU Hurd	ReactOS	L4 Fiasco Pistachio	Plan9	AROS	Syllable	Inferno	FreeRTOS	eCos	pico]OS	HelenOS	E/OS	V2 OS	K42
Linux binary compatibility	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes				No	No	No	No	No	No		Yes	Yes[28]	No	No	No	No	No	No
Wine	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes		Yes	Yes	No	No
DOSEMU/DOSBox	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes		Yes	Yes		not needed			Yes
XOrg	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes		Yes	Yes	Yes	No
XFree86	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes		Yes	No	No
other gui									OpenGEM			own				Rio
Mozilla Firefox	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes		Yes	Yes		No
other browser	Konqueror, Opera, Dillo, Lynx, others	Konqueror, Opera, Dillo, Lynx, others	Konqueror, Opera, Dillo, Lynx, others	Konqueror, Opera, Dillo, Lynx, others		Konqueror, Opera	Konqueror, Opera		Arachne							abaco, Mothra		ABrowse	Charon
OpenOffice.org	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes		Yes	Yes
other office suite	GNOME Office, KOffice	GNOME Office, KOffice	GNOME Office, KOffice	GNOME Office, KOffice
MPlayer	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes		Yes	Yes
other media player	VLC, Xine, xmms	Xine, xmms	xmms	Xine, xmms		Xine	Xine
Gaim	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes		Yes	Yes
other instant messenger	AMSN, Kopete, Psi	AMSN	licq	AMSN, Kopete, Psi			AMSN
Apache	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes		Yes	Yes
other httpd	many	many	many, lighttpd	many				Yes				own				own			own
QEMU	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes		Yes	Yes
other PC emulator	Bochs, VMware, Xen	Bochs, VMware, Xen		Bochs, VMware, Xen
PearPC	Yes	Yes		Yes			Yes

^ partial

Other information and technologies

	GNU/Linux	FreeBSD	OpenBSD	NetBSD	DragonFly BSD	OpenSolaris	Darwin OpenDarwin	Minix	FreeDOS	NewOS	Haiku	MenuetOS	GNU Mach GNU Hurd	ReactOS	L4 Fiasco Pistachio	Plan9	AROS	Syllable	Inferno	FreeRTOS	eCos	pico]OS	HelenOS	E/OS	V2 OS	K42
License	GPL	BSD	BSD	BSD	BSD	CDDL	APSL	BSD	GPL		MIT	Menuet 64	GPL	GPL/LGPL	GPL	LPL	APL	GPL	GPL/LGPL/MIT	modified GPL	modified GPL/eCos	BSD	BSD
Kernel type	Monolithic with modules	Monolithic with modules	Monolithic	Monolithic with modules	Monolithic with modules	Monolithic with modules	Hybrid	Microkernel	Monolithic			Monolithic	Microkernel		Microkernel					RTOS	RTOS	RTOS	Microkernel
Kernel programming language	C	C	C	C	C	C	C, C++[29]	C	C			ASM		ASM, C	C++	C[30]			C	C		C	C
Kernel Thread support	1:1	1:1, M:N		M:N		1:1, M:N	1:1
OS family:	Unix-like	BSD, Unix	BSD, Unix	BSD, Unix	BSD, Unix	Unix	BSD, Unix, Unix-like, Mac OS X	Unix-like	DOS	own[31]	BeOS	own/original	Unix-like	Windows	L4	Unix-like	AmigaOS	POSIX	Unix-like	RTOS	RTOS	RTOS	own/original
oldest non-EOL version[32]	2.4	4.11	3.8	2	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Forks	µClinux	Darwin, DragonFly BSD		OpenBSD						Haiku			Darwin						OzInferno

^ for IOKit
^ concept based on BeOS, Solaris, FreeBSD, Windows NT
^ no for single line development model

See also

• Berkeley Software Distribution
• Comparison of operating systems
• Comparison of Linux distributions
• Comparison of BSD operating systems
• Comparison of kernels
• Comparison of file systems
• Comparison of virtual machines
• FreeOsZoo
• List of operating systems
• Live CD
• Microsoft Windows
• Unix
• Unix-like
• X86 DOS Comparison

External links

• Unix History
• Windows History
• The FreeBSD home page
• Info on FreeBSD (last updated March 21, 2004)
• The OpenBSD home page
• Info on OpenBSD (last updated February 17, 2002)
• The NetBSD home page
• Info on NetBSD (last updated February 17, 2002)
• Apple's Mac OS X site
• Info on Mac OS X (last updated March 4, 2002)
• Info on Mac OS X Server (last updated February 14, 2002)
• The DragonFly BSD home page
• Operating System Technical Comparison

HD images to try in PC emulator

• FreeOSZoo HD images
• Haiku Build Factory

Program/package sources

• freshmeat - mostly Linux
• FreeBSD Ports - FreeBSD
• FRESHports - FreeBSD
• OpenBSD packages and ports - OpenBSD
• pkgsrc - NetBSD, Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, Darwin
• OpenSolaris Download Center - OpenSolaris
• Nexenta OS packages - OpenSolaris
• Autopackage - Linux
• Klik - Linux
• OpenPKG - Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, Solaris
• DarwinPorts - Darwin
• MINIX 3 - Software - Minix
• FreeDOS - Software - FreeDOS
• FSF/UNESCO Free Software Directory - GNU Mach/GNU Hurd, Linux
• ReactOS Support Database - ReactOS
• Kamidake - Syllable