Editing Portal:FreeBSD,OpenBSD,etc (section)

=== Base system philosophy ===

The Perl removal reflected FreeBSD’s larger distinction between the '''base system''' and '''third-party software'''.

The FreeBSD base system includes the kernel, core userland, libraries, build system, startup scripts, manual pages, and core administrative tools maintained together by the FreeBSD project. Third-party software is handled through the Ports Collection and binary packages.

This separation is one of FreeBSD’s defining features. It differs from many Linux distributions, where the operating system is assembled almost entirely from packages managed by the distribution package manager. In FreeBSD, the base system and packages are historically separate layers.

Perl’s move out of base therefore made a philosophical point: even an extremely useful language should not necessarily be part of the operating system core if it complicates base maintenance and cross-building.