FreeBSD is a
free Unix-like operating system descended from
Research Unix via the
Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). Although for legal reasons FreeBSD cannot use the Unix
trademark, it is a direct descendant of BSD, which was historically also called "BSD Unix" or "Berkeley Unix". The first version of FreeBSD was released in 1993, and today FreeBSD is the most widely used
open-source BSD distribution, accounting for more than three-quarters of all installed systems running open-source BSD derivatives.