A fluidic oscillator capable of generating free fluid jets having distinctive, controllable and industrially/commercially useful flow patterns has a switching chamber having an inlet port that allows a pressurized fluid to enter and flow through the oscillator, an exhaust passage having a sidewall that forms one boundary wall of the switching chamber, a container passage having a sidewall that forms the second boundary wall of the switching chamber, a compliance member connected to the distal end of the container passage, and an expansion chamber connected to the distal end of the exhaust passage, with the expansion chamber having an exhaust orifice that allows fluid to flow from the oscillator. In operation, such an oscillator yields a contained fluid jet that issues from the inlet port into the swishing chamber and alternately switches its flow direction between the container and exhaust passages. This switching action serves to generate controllable pressure waves in the exhaust passage and expansion chamber which act to control the pattern of the free fluid jet that flows from the orifice.