The ports tree, ZFS, jails, pf, and the internals of a Unix built for correctness.
Released November 22, 1994 and rebased on 4.4BSD-Lite, FreeBSD 2.0 was the first release legally clear of the USL v. BSDi lawsuit's shadow — the release that secured the project's legal future.
Why and how to build a custom FreeBSD kernel configuration, from copying GENERIC to installing the result.
How FreeBSD names and configures network interfaces, manages routing tables, and exposes the tools to inspect both.
How bhyve uses hardware virtualization extensions to run guest operating systems, and the moving parts behind a running virtual machine.
How GEOM's graph of providers and consumers underlies partitioning, RAID, encryption, and disk labels on FreeBSD.
A stage-by-stage walkthrough of how a FreeBSD machine goes from power-on to a login prompt, and where to intervene at each step.
How pf's rule evaluation model, tables, and anchors fit together on FreeBSD, with a ruleset you can adapt for a real host.
How FreeBSD jails partition a single kernel into isolated userlands, and why they predate Linux containers by more than a decade.
How ZFS's storage pools, datasets, and copy-on-write snapshots fit together on FreeBSD, with the commands you'll actually use day to day.
A practical comparison of the FreeBSD Ports Collection and the pkg binary package manager, and how to use both together without breaking your system.