| Primary developers | First public release | Based on | Latest stable version | Latest stable version | Cost (USD) | Preferred license | Purpose | Short description | /!\ Not defined /!\ | |
| Primary developers | First public release | Based on | Version | Release Date | Cost (USD) | Preferred license | Purpose | Short description | /!\ Not defined /!\ | |
| FreeBSD | The FreeBSD Project | 1993-12-01 | 386BSD, 4.4BSD-Lite | 10.1 | 2014-11-14 | Free | Simplified BSD | Server, Workstation, Network Appliance, Embedded | Aims for maximum performance. | /!\ Not defined /!\ |
| OpenBSD | The OpenBSD Project | 1996-09-01 | NetBSD 1.0 | 5.6 | 2014-11-01 | Free | ISC | Server, Workstation, Network Appliance, Embedded | Aims for maximum security. | /!\ Not defined /!\ |
| NetBSD | The NetBSD Project | 1993-05-01 | 386BSD, 4.4BSD-Lite | 6.1.5 | 2014-10-07 | Free | Simplified BSD | Server, Workstation, Network Appliance, Embedded | Aims for maximum portability. | /!\ Not defined /!\ |
| DragonFly BSD | Matt Dillon | 2004-07-12 | FreeBSD 4.8 | 4.0.3 | 2015-01-21 | Free | Modified BSD | Server, Workstation, Network Appliance, Embedded | Aims for maximum scalability. | /!\ Not defined /!\ |
| 386BSD | William and Lynne Jolitz | 1992-03-01 | 4.3BSD Net/2 | 1.0 | 1994-11-01 | Free | BSD | Open source general purpose | Historical | /!\ Not defined /!\ |
| BSD/OS (BSD/386) | BSDi, Wind River Systems | 1993-03-01 | 4.3BSD Net/2, 4.4BSD | 5.1 | 2003-10-01 | ? | Proprietary | General purpose | Historical | /!\ Not defined /!\ |
| SunOS | Sun Microsystems | 1982 | 4.xBSD, UNIX System V | 4.1.4 | 1994-11-01 | Included in hardware and support charges | Proprietary | Server, Workstation | Historical (Solaris is a different code base) | /!\ Not defined /!\ |
| Ultrix | Digital Equipment Corporation | 1984 | 4.2BSD, SVR2 | 4.5 | 1995 | ? | Proprietary | General Purpose | Historical (ran on DEC VAX & MIPS systems or emulator). | /!\ Not defined /!\ |
| Tru64 UNIX (DEC OSF/1, Digital UNIX) | DEC, Compaq, HP | 1993 | 4.3BSD, 4.4BSD, Mach 2.5, UNIX System V | 5.1B-6 | 2010-10-01 | Non-free $99 (non-commercial) | Proprietary | General Purpose | Only runs on HP Alpha systems or emulator. | /!\ Not defined /!\ |
| OS X | Apple Inc. | 2001-03-24 | Darwin | 10.10 "Yosemite" | 2014-10-16 |
Client: Free
Server (add-on application): $19.99 |
Open source core system (see Darwin) with proprietary higher level API layers locking to Apple hardware | Workstation, Home Desktop, Server | Locked to Apple hardware use only | /!\ Not defined /!\ |
| iOS | Apple Inc. | 2007-06-01 | Darwin | 8 | 2014-09-17 | Free | Proprietary | Embedded mobile device | Ships with Apple iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Apple TV | /!\ Not defined /!\ |
| Darwin | Apple Inc. | 2001-03-01 | NeXTSTEP, FreeBSD, Mac OS | 13.0.0 | 2012-06-11 | Free | APSL, GPL and others | Workstation, Home Desktop, Server | The kernel and certain userland components of OS X | /!\ Not defined /!\ |
| PC-BSD | iXsystems, Inc. | 2006-04-29 | FreeBSD | 10.0.1 | 2014-03-14 | Free | BSD | Desktop | Easy to use while maintaining full use of FreeBSD base | /!\ Not defined /!\ |
| GhostBSD | Eric Turgeon, Fomoro Daniel Soromou | 2009-11-01 | FreeBSD | 4.0 (FreeBSD 10.0) | 2014-09-25 | Free | BSD | Desktop, Workstation | Easy to use, full FreeBSD w/ GNOME, Mate, Xfce, LXDE or Openbox. | /!\ Not defined /!\ |
| DesktopBSD | Peter Hofer, Daniel Seuffert | 2005-07-25 | FreeBSD | 1.7 | 2009-09-07 | Free | BSD | Desktop | Easy to use | /!\ Not defined /!\ |
| ClosedBSD | Joshua Bergeron and various contributors | ? | FreeBSD | 1.0B (floppy), 1.0-RC1 (CD) | ? | Free | Proprietary | ? | firewall/NAT, boot floppy, Live CD | /!\ Not defined /!\ |
| FreeSBIE | ? | ? | FreeBSD | 2.0.3 | 2007-02-01 | Free | ? | ? | Live CD of FreeBSD. DistroWatch lists as discontinued. | Live CD of FreeBSD. DistroWatch lists as discontinued. |
| PicoBSD | Michael Bialecki | ? | FreeBSD | 0.42 | ? | Free | BSD | boot floppy | ? | /!\ Not defined /!\ |
| Anonym.OS | ? | 2005-01-01 | OpenBSD 3.8 | none (beta only) | ? | Free | ? | Anonymous browsing | Live CD | /!\ Not defined /!\ |
| MirOS BSD | The MirOS Project | ? | OpenBSD 3.1 | #10 | 2008-03-16 | Free | ? | ? | European | /!\ Not defined /!\ |
| ekkoBSD | Rick Collette | ? | OpenBSD 3.3 | ? | ? | ? | ? | Server | easy to administer | /!\ Not defined /!\ |
| MicroBSD | Bulgarians | ? | OpenBSD 3.0/3.4 | 0.6 | 2003-10-27 | Free | ? | General purpose | Small, secure | /!\ Not defined /!\ |
| OliveBSD | Gabriel Paderni | ? | OpenBSD 3.8 | ? | ? | Free | ? | Live CD | DistroWatch lists as discontinued. | /!\ Not defined /!\ |
| Gentoo/FreeBSD | Gentoo Linux developers | ? | FreeBSD | ? | ? | Free | GPL, BSD | Server, Workstation, Network Appliance | uses Gentoo framework | /!\ Not defined /!\ |
| Gentoo OpenBSD | Gentoo Linux developers | ? | OpenBSD | ? | ? | Free | GPL, BSD | Server, Workstation, Network Appliance, Embedded | uses Gentoo framework | /!\ Not defined /!\ |
| Gentoo NetBSD | Gentoo Linux developers | ? | NetBSD | ? | ? | Free | GPL, BSD | Server, Workstation, Network Appliance, Embedded | uses Gentoo framework | /!\ Not defined /!\ |
| Gentoo DragonflyBSD | Robert Sebastian Gerus (project not yet officially supported by Gentoo) | ? | DragonFly BSD | ? | ? | Free | ? | Server, Workstation, Network Appliance | uses Gentoo framework | /!\ Not defined /!\ |
| Debian GNU/kFreeBSD | The Debian GNU/kFreeBSD team | 2011-02-06 | GNU, FreeBSD | 7.5 | 2014-04-26 | Free | DFSG | General purpose | GNU userspace on FreeBSD kernel | /!\ Not defined /!\ |
| Debian GNU/NetBSD | The Debian GNU/kNetBSD team | Abandoned | GNU, NetBSD | Abandoned | Abandoned | Free | DFSG | General purpose | GNU userspace on NetBSD kernel | /!\ Not defined /!\ |
| MidnightBSD | Lucas Holt | 2007-08-04 | FreeBSD 6.1 beta | 0.5 | 2014-09-22 | Free | BSD | Desktop | GNUstep based Desktop Environment | /!\ Not defined /!\ |
| pfSense | various contributors | 2006-10-04 | FreeBSD | 2.2 | 2015-01-23 | Free | BSD | Security appliance | firewall/NAT, Live CD | /!\ Not defined /!\ |
| Paxym FreeBSD for Octeon | Paxym Inc. | 2007-12-11 | FreeBSD 7.0 | 4.7 | 2008-08-13 | ? | Proprietary | Network, Storage, Security Applications: Routers/UTM/Firewall/NAS | For Cavium Networks Octeon MIPS architecture multicore processors | /!\ Not defined /!\ |
| MaheshaBSD | ? | FreeBSD 8 | ? | ? | Free | BSD | FreeBSD multipurpose | /!\ Not defined /!\ | ||
| KarmaBSD | ? |
FreeBSD 8
OpenBSD |
? | ? | Free | Free software | FreeBSD, OpenBSD Firewall, MP3 player, backup, others | /!\ Not defined /!\ | ||
| Jibbed | OpenBSD, NetBSD | 6.0 | Free | BSD | Live CD of NetBSD | Live CD of NetBSD | ||||
| Developer | First public release | Based on | Version | Release Date | Cost (USD) | Preferred license | Purpose | Short description | /!\ Not defined /!\ |
| Supported architectures | Supported file system | Kernel type | GUI on by default | Package management | Update management | Primary APIs | |
| FreeBSD | x86, x86-64, PC98, Itanium, UltraSPARC, ARM, MIPS, PPC, others | UFS, UFS2, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, SMBFS, NetWare (nwfs), NTFS (limited read-write), ReiserFS (read only), XFS (experimental), ZFS, FUSE, Coda (experimental), AFS, others | Monolithic with modules | No (X.Org available) | ports tree, packages | source (svn, portsnap), network binary update (freebsd-update, pkg) | BSD, POSIX |
| OpenBSD | x86, 68k, Alpha, x86-64, SPARC, UltraSPARC, ARM, MIPS, PPC, VAX, others | UFS, UFS2, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, NTFS (read only), AFS, FUSE, others | Monolithic | No (X.Org included) | ports tree, packages | source (CVS, CVSync, rsync) or binary upgrade | BSD, POSIX |
| NetBSD | x86, 68k, Alpha, x86-64, PPC, SPARC, UltraSPARC, PowerPC, ARM, others | UFS, UFS2, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, NFS, LFS, UDF, SMBFS, Coda, HFS+ (read only), EFS (read only), NTFS (read only), TMPFS, FUSE, PUFFS (BSD replacement of FUSE), ADOS (AmigaDOS file system), filecorefs (Acorn RISC OS file system), others | Monolithic with modules | No (X.Org or XFree86 included) | pkgsrc, packages | source (CVS, CVSup, rsync) or binary (using sysinst) | BSD, POSIX |
| Ultrix | VAX, PDP-11, MIPS | UFS + others | Monolithic | No (X11 included) | setld | ? | BSD, POSIX (4.0 onwards) |
| Tru64 UNIX | Alpha | UFS, AdvFS, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS | Hybrid | Yes (CDE) | setld | dupatch | POSIX, UNIX 98, X11, CDE, others |
| OS X / Darwin | PPC, x86, x86-64, ARM | HFS+ (default), exFAT, HFS, UFS, AFP, ISO 9660, FAT, UDF, NFS, SMBFS, NTFS (read only), FTP, WebDAV, others | Hybrid | Yes (Aqua) | OS X Installer | Software Update | Carbon, Cocoa, BSD/POSIX, CF, X11 (since 10.3) |
| DragonFly BSD | x86-64 | HAMMER, UFS, FAT, ISO 9660, NFS, SMBFS, NTFS, ext2, others | Hybrid | No (X.Org available) | dports, pkgng | Git | BSD, POSIX |
| PC-BSD | x86-64 | UFS, UFS2, FAT, ISO 9660, NFS, SMBFS, NTFS (read only), ZFS, others | Monolithic with modules | Yes (KDE) | graphical installation wizard, ports tree | CVSup, Portsnap, network binary update (Online Update) | BSD, POSIX, X11, KDE |
| MidnightBSD | x86, x86-64 | UFS, UFS2, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, SMBFS, NetWare (nwfs), NTFS (read only), others | Monolithic with modules | No (X.Org available) | ports tree, packages | source CVSup | BSD, POSIX, X11, GNUstep |
| GhostBSD | x86, x86-64 | UFS, UFS2, ext2, FAT, ISO 9660, UDF, NFS, SMBFS, NetWare (nwfs), NTFS (limited read-write), ReiserFS (read only), XFS (experimental), ZFS, FUSE, Coda (experimental), AFS, others | Monolithic with modules | Yes (MATE) | ports tree, packages | source (CVSup, portsnap), network binary update (freebsd-update) | BSD, POSIX |
| Resource access control | Security logging | Subsystem isolation mechanisms | Integrated firewall | Encrypted file systems | Data execution prevention | Data execution prevention | |
| Resource access control | Security logging | Subsystem isolation mechanisms | Integrated firewall | Encrypted file systems | hardware | emulation | |
| OS X | Unix, ACLs | syslog, CAPP event auditing, OpenBSM | chroot, sandbox | IPFW2 (deprecated), PF | Yes | Yes | ? |
| FreeBSD | Unix, ACLs, MAC | syslog, CAPP event auditing, OpenBSM | chroot, jail, MAC partitions, Capsicum | IPFW2, IPFilter, PF | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PC-BSD | Unix, ACLs, MAC | ? | chroot, jail, MAC Partitions | IPFW2, IPFilter, PF | Yes | Yes | No |
| GhostBSD | Unix, ACLs, MAC | syslog, CAPP event auditing, OpenBSM | chroot, jail, MAC partitions, Capsicum | IPFW2, IPFilter, PF | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| MidnightBSD | Unix, ACLs, MAC | syslog | chroot, jail, MAC partitions | IPFW2, IPFilter, PF | Yes | No | No |
| DragonFly BSD | Unix | syslog | chroot, jail, VKernel | IPFW2, IPFilter, PF | Yes | No | No |
| NetBSD | Unix, Veriexec | syslog | chroot, privilege separation | IPFilter, PF, NPF | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| OpenBSD | Unix | syslog | chroot, systrace, privilege separation | PF | Yes | Yes | Yes |