I-FreeBSD yinkqubo yasimahla kunye nevulekileyo ye-Unix-efana nenkqubo ephuma kwi-Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), eyayisekwe kwi-Unix yoPhando. Inguqulelo yokuqala ye-FreeBSD yakhululwa ngo-1993. Kwi-2005, i-FreeBSD yayiyeyona ndlela idumileyo yokusebenza kwe-BSD evulekileyo, ibalwa ngaphezu kweekota ezintathu kuzo zonke iinkqubo ze-BSD ezifakelwe kunye nelayisensi evumelekileyo. I-FreeBSD inezinto ezifanayo kunye ne-Linux, kunye neentlukwano ezimbini ezinkulu kwi-scope kunye nelayisenisi: I-FreeBSD igcina inkqubo epheleleyo, oko kukuthi iprojekthi ihambisa i-kernel, abaqhubi besixhobo, i-userland utilities, kunye namaxwebhu, ngokuchasene ne-Linux kuphela ukuhambisa i-kernel kunye nabaqhubi, kunye nokuxhomekeka kumaqela esithathu kwisofthiwe yenkqubo; Ikhowudi yomthombo we-FreeBSD ikhutshwa ngokubanzi phantsi kwelayisensi ye-BSD evumelekileyo, ngokuchasene ne-copyleft GPL esetyenziswa yi-Linux. Iprojekthi yeFreeBSD ibandakanya iqela lokhuseleko elijongene nayo yonke isoftware ethunyelwe kwisiseko sokuhanjiswa. Uluhlu olubanzi lwezicelo ezongezelelweyo zomntu wesithathu zingafakelwa kwiipakethe zokubini kusetyenziswa inkqubo yolawulo lwepakethe ye-pkg okanye ukusuka kumthombo ngeFreeBSD Ports, [6] okanye ngokuqulunqa ikhowudi yomthombo ngesandla. Ininzi ye-codebase ye-FreeBSD ibe yinxalenye yezinye iinkqubo zokusebenza ezifana ne-Darwin (isiseko se-macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, kunye ne-tvOS), i-TrueNAS (inkqubo evulekileyo yokusebenza ye-NAS / SANN), kunye nenkqubo yenkqubo ye-PlayStation 3 kunye ne-PlayStation 4 game consoles.