These tables compare free software / open-source operating systems. Where not all of the versions support a feature, the first version which supports it is listed.
Contents
1General information
2Supported architectures
3Supported hardware
3.1General
3.2Networking
4Network technologies
5Supported file systems
6Supported file system features
7Security features
8See also
9References
10External links
General information
Name
License
Kernel type
Kernel programming language
Kernel thread support
OS family
Oldest non-EOL version[Note 1]
Forks
Linux
GPL version 2 only
Monolithic with modules
C
1:1
Unix-like
4.4
elks
FreeBSD
BSD; GPL, LGPL software usually included
Monolithic with modules
C
1:1
BSD, Unix-like
11
DragonFly BSD
OpenBSD
BSD
Monolithic
C
1:1
BSD, Unix-like
6.4
MirOS
NetBSD
BSD
Monolithic with modules
C
1:1
BSD, Unix-like
7.0
OpenBSD
DragonFly BSD
BSD
Hybrid
C
1:1
BSD, Unix-like
No
OpenSolaris, illumos
CDDL
Monolithic with modules
C
1:1, M:N
Unix
No
Darwin, OpenDarwin
APSL
Hybrid
C, C++[Note 2]
1:1
BSD, Unix, Unix-like, OS X
No
MINIX
BSD
Microkernel
C
Unix-like
No
RedoxOS
MIT
Microkernel
Rust
Unix-like
No
FreeRTOS
MIT
RTOS
C
RTOS
No
FreeDOS
GPL
Monolithic
C
DOS
1.1
Genode
AGPL
Microkernel
C++
1:1
Genode
Haiku
MIT
Hybrid
C, C++
BeOS
No
TiltOS
House
BSD
Haskell
own/original
No
KolibriOS
GPL
Monolithic
ASM
MenuetOS
No
MenuetOS
Menuet 64, commerce excluded
Monolithic
ASM
own/original
No
KolibriOS
GNU
GPL
Multiserver Microkernel (Hurd kernel) or Monolithic (Linux-libre kernel, fork of Linux kernel, and other kernels which are not part of the GNU Project)
C
1:1
Unix-like
2.4 on Linux-libre kernel (not on Hurd kernel)
Linux
ReactOS
GPL, LGPL
Hybrid
C, C++
Windows-like
No
RISC OS
Apache 2.0
Monolithic (with co-operative multitaslking)
ARM assembly
RISC OS
No
RISC OS 6
L4, Fiasco, Pistachio
Some GPL, some BSD
Microkernel
C++
L4
No
Plan 9
MIT
Hybrid
C
1:1, 1:M Cothread style.
own, Unix informed
No
Inferno, Plan B, 9front
AROS
APL
Exokernel
C
AmigaOS
No
Syllable
GPL
Monolithic with modules
C, C++
1:1
Unix-like, BeOS, AmigaOS, POSIX
No
Inferno
GPL, LGPL; MIT
C
Plan 9
No
OzInferno
NuttX
BSD
RTOS
C
RTOS
No
eCos
modified GPL, eCos
RTOS
C, C++
RTOS
No
RTEMS
modified GPL, BSD, Stanford
RTOS
C and ASM with native support for other languages including C++ and Ada
↑ 2.02.12.22.32.42.5Read/Write support via NTFS-3G.
↑ 3.003.013.023.033.043.053.063.073.083.093.103.113.123.133.143.153.163.173.18Read only kernel driver.
↑read/write access without journaling; HFS+ with journal either be opened read-only or be written with journal ignored (potentially corrupting the file system).
↑ 5.05.15.25.35.42.6 and later.
↑With patch [1] .
↑Read only.
↑OpenSolaris also has an in-kernel, native SMB server built directly on the ZFS DMU.
↑ 9.09.1Ext2/3 read and write support for Haiku (jvff's blog).
↑The GSoC 2009 project assignment was never completed (Obaro Ogbo's blog ).
↑Ext3/4 is not supported on Hurd kernel for now
↑UFS support is dropped on Hurd kernel for now
↑Default in series 028.
Supported file system features
Name
RAID
quota
Resource access control
encryption
other special file system features
Linux
Yes
Yes
Unix, ACL, MAC
Yes
LVM, EVMS
FreeBSD
Yes
Yes
Unix, ACL, MAC
Yes
GEOM, snapshots, background fsck, user-mountable file systems
OpenBSD
Yes
Yes
Unix
Yes
NetBSD
Yes
Yes
Unix, Veriexec
Yes
Snapshots, Journaling
DragonFly BSD
Yes
Yes
Unix
Yes
HAMMER, Snapshots, Checksumming, Deduplication
OpenSolaris, illumos
Yes
Yes
Unix, ACL, MAC
Yes
Solaris Volume Manager, ZFS, snapshots, transparent data repair
Darwin, OpenDarwin
Yes
Unix, ACL
Yes
MINIX
Unix
FreeDOS
No
Genode
No
No
No
No
Per-process virtual file-system layer
KolibriOS
No
MenuetOS
No
GNU
Unix
ReactOS
No
L4, Fiasco, Pistachio
Plan 9
No
No
Unix-like, no root
No
snapshots, venti archival storage, per-process namespace, user-mountable file systems
AROS
Syllable
Unix
64-bit, journaling, extended file attributes
Inferno
No
No
Unix-like, no root
No
per-process namespace, user-mountable file systems
FreeRTOS
eCos
RTEMS
HelenOS
No
No
No
No
No
E/OS
Yes
Yes
Unix
Yes
No
Name
RAID
quota
Resource access control
encryption
other special file system features
Security features
Operating system
Mandatory access control
Software executable space protection
Operating system-level virtualization
Virtualisation
Userspace protection
Others
Linux
SELinux, AppArmor[Note 1]
Exec Shield,[Note 1] PaX[Note 1]
Chroot, namespace and cgroups,[Note 2] Linux-VServer,[Note 1] OpenVZ[Note 1]
KVM
IPFilter, Iptables
grsecurity,[Note 1] RSBAC[Note 1]
FreeBSD
SeBSD,[Note 3][Note 4] TrustedBSD
ProPolice/SSP[Note 5]
jail
bhyve[20]
IPFW, PF, IPFilter
Darwin
SEDarwin, TrustedBSD
jail
IPFW
OpenBSD
W^X, ProPolice/SSP[Note 6]
vmm[21]
PF
OpenSolaris, illumos
TrustedBSD
Solaris Containers
KVM[22]
IPFilter
RBAC[23]
Plan 9
No
No
per-process namespaces
Inferno
No
No
per-process namespaces
↑ 1.01.11.21.31.41.51.6available as a patch(not integrated into the linux kernel or the userland utilities), see the security features of the Linux distribution for more details
↑LXC is a front-end to this; also see lwn.net
↑not integrated into the operating system
↑see here [2] for more details
↑ProPolice/Stack-Smashing Protector has been enabled in base system since FreeBSD 8.0 release.
↑"OpenBSD: Platforms". OpenBSD. 9 May 2006. http://www.openbsd.org/plat.html.
↑"Platforms Supported by NetBSD". NetBSD.org. http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/.
↑DragonFly Frequently Asked Questions
↑"OpenSolaris FAQ: Does the OpenSolaris project include source code for both the SPARC and x64/x86 architectures?". Opensolaris.org. 26 October 2009. http://www.opensolaris.org/os/about/faq/general_faq/#platforms.
↑"OpenDarwin FAQ: Compatibility issues". 15 April 2007. http://www.opendarwin.org/en/faq/ch01s03.html#hardware.
↑Larabel, Michael (21 July 2018). "NetBSD 8.0 Officially Released With USB3 Support, Security Improvements & UEFI". https://www.phoronix.com/news/NetBSD-8.0-Officially-Released.