The first time I installed FreeBSD was in 1995, setting up a basic internet presence (mail, ftp, http) for the consulting firm I worked for. There was a small I

The first time I installed FreeBSD was in 1995, setting up a basic internet presence (mail, ftp, http) for the consulting firm I worked for. There was a small ISP on the floor above us, and we ran PPP over a serial cable strung out the window. Aside from a little exposure to NextStep at school, it was my first unix. I had the impression that FreeBSD was this capital-I Institution - Core has always been so professional and competent that from the outside, it never looked like a newish project. I have no idea how they had such comprehensive documentation and still found the time to write code. I'm still incredibly impressed with them, love FreeBSD, and have been running it with only minor interruptions ever since. I've not been terribly involved (and not at all now), but it has been a privilege to have lived basically my entire career with such an incredibly competent and helpful group of awesome people building what is IMO the world's best server OS. Looking forward to another 26!