Software Alternatives & Reviews

Gentoo VS FreeBSD

Compare Gentoo VS FreeBSD and see what are their differences

Gentoo logo Gentoo

The website of Gentoo, a flexible Linux or BSD distribution.

FreeBSD logo FreeBSD

FreeBSD is an advanced operating system for x86 compatible (including Pentium® and Athlon™)...
  • Gentoo Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-02
  • FreeBSD Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-09-29

Gentoo videos

Gentoo Linux: Explained | Linux Distro Reviews

More videos:

  • Review - Gentoo Linux Review: Awesome Linux distribution for advanced users
  • Review - 10 Gentoo Tips!

FreeBSD videos

FreeBSD 12 Review - Used as my daily OS

More videos:

  • Review - A Look and brief introduction to FreeBSD 12.1
  • Review - I tried FreeBSD! - here's what I think of it

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Gentoo and FreeBSD)
Linux Distribution
58 58%
42% 42
Operating Systems
52 52%
48% 48
Linux
50 50%
50% 50
Linux Distro
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

Share your experience with using Gentoo and FreeBSD. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Gentoo and FreeBSD

Gentoo Reviews

  1. have you seen the glibc ebuild? it's 1500 lines. lfs does it in less than 50

    gentoo has a feature creep and bitrot problem that has been going on for no less than 15 years. glibc is a package that should be closely guarded as it is at the CORE of your system.

    🏁 Competitors: Funtoo Linux

The best Linux distributions (operating systems)
Gentoo Linux is aimed at more experienced users and is regularly updated as part of a rolling release. The operating system is based on source code and considered a secure option for servers. Gentoo Linux can be customized and optimized to suit one’s own needs.
Source: www.ionos.com
Best Top 20 Ubuntu Linux Alternatives (Pros and Cons)
Some larger packages or those without source code have precompiled binaries. Gentoo Linux takes its name from the Gentoo penguin. The name was selected to emphasize machine-specific optimization, a key Gentoo feature.
Avoid The Hack: 11 Best Privacy Friendly Operating Systems (Desktops)
Gentoo is flexible and gives the user many alternatives for system software, which allows users to tailor Gentoo to their needs and preferences. The user has near-complete control of all packages installed on a Gentoo system.
11 Best Linux Distros For Programming And Developers [2020 Edition]
The installation process will teach you a lot about your system and its subtleties. One of the best parts about Gentoo, which is also a curse for some people, is its ability to configure what compilation flags packages should support. If we keep the ease part aside, Gentoo gives a developer power, stability, and flexibility — everything that he/she wants.
Source: fossbytes.com

FreeBSD Reviews

Best free Linux router and firewall distributions of 2023
OpenBSD and FreeBSD are actively developed and are very capable, but these systems require a high level of understanding of operating system internals and low-level networking to be used as routers.
Source: teklager.se
Avoid The Hack: 11 Best Privacy Friendly Operating Systems (Desktops)
With "Linuxulator," FreeBSD has compatibility with Linux binaries. Linuxulator can run unmodified Linux binaries without using virtual machines or emulation. Additionally, FreeBSD has tens of thousands ported libraries and applications.

Social recommendations and mentions

Gentoo might be a bit more popular than FreeBSD. We know about 27 links to it since March 2021 and only 21 links to FreeBSD. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Gentoo mentions (27)

  • Gentoo bans AI-created contributions
    > Gentoo does not accept art contributions of any kind (human/ai), there is just no place for this. Okay, let's do a short fact check on that: 1. Visit https://gentoo.org, notice logo in top left: a first sign of contributed art. - Source: Hacker News / 19 days ago
  • Linux saved my life
    And just wait till you discover Arch Linux, Gentoo, Guix, or NixOS. Source: 10 months ago
  • I'd like to interview redditors here about their favorite distro release.
    I'm daily driving Gentoo GNU/Linux (https://gentoo.org). I prefer it over other GNU/Linux distributions because it allows me to customize the operating system down to a lower level. I'm also planning on installing Linux From Scratch (https://linuxfromscratch.org) for educational purposes. However, I might end up daily driving it. I do extremely difficult and tedious activities on my computer just for fun and I... Source: about 1 year ago
  • Is the Gentoo Wiki down?
    I can't access any of the gentoo.org services at this time (forums, bugs, etc.) They all report server errors. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Did it tell me the truth? LOL
    Surely this info is on the official site, gentoo.org, so you don't have to worry about asking? Source: over 1 year ago
View more

FreeBSD mentions (21)

  • I've never used FreeBSD and have some questions
    Aside from being UNIX based, what similarities does it share with Linux? Both have monolithic kernels. Source based build systems are offered (ports, which are like the portage system on Gentoo) as well as binary build systems (pkg, which is like apt, yum, pacman, etc.) Both offer a lot of free software, though more licenses are compatible with FreeBSD like CDDL, which is not compatible Linux. Both let you... Source: 6 months ago
  • FreeBSD turns 30 today!
    There's no mention of a birthday on their site, and its footer says 1995-2023. That must be just the site, because Wikipedia tells me FreeBSD's initial release was indeed, but not quite, 30 years ago, November 1st 1993. Still no birthday. Source: 11 months ago
  • Computer
    I'm not the right person to ask this -- I just run it on whatever I happen to have. But I think sleep and wifi (for example) have issues with different hardware, so you'd have to do your homework. The FreeBSD handbook on freebsd.org is always very helpful to me. You can try it out with a live cd / thumbdrive to see how much supported hardware you've got. My Lenovo X1 from a couple years ago works for what I... Source: 11 months ago
  • Can SGI’s Enthusiast Community Bring IRIX Back to Life?
    People are still actively working on Illumos. The last change was yesterday morning. * https://illumos.org People are still actively working on MirBSD. There's a CVS commit account that can be followed on the FediVerse. * http://www.mirbsd.org It's DragonFly BSD, not Dragon BSD, and the irony of that is that you missed FreeBSD, which is of course still going. * https://dragonflybsd.org * https://freebsd.org As... - Source: Hacker News / 12 months ago
  • X220 and beer. A lovely combo, especially with FreeBSD.
    A open source free and stable Unix-like operating system. Read more at http://freebsd.org. Source: 12 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Gentoo and FreeBSD, you can also consider the following products

Debian - Debian is a free distribution of the GNU/Linux operating system.

Arch Linux - You've reached the website for Arch Linux, a lightweight and flexible Linux® distribution that tries to Keep It Simple. Currently we have official packages optimized for the x86-64 architecture.

Ubuntu - Ubuntu is a Debian Linux-based open source operating system for desktop computers.

Fedora - Fedora creates an innovative, free, and open source platform for hardware, clouds, and containers that enables software developers and community members to build tailored solutions for their users.

Linux Mint - Linux Mint is one of the most popular desktop Linux distributions and used by millions of people.

Manjaro - Manjaro Linux is a linux distribution which is based on arch linux. It uses the PACMAN package manager.